There is a good chance the Vikings will take the best defensive lineman available when they pick 12th in the first round of the NFL draft, rather than select a lower-ranked quarterback.

"I think, as everybody has talked about, the defensive line has a lot of quality depth at that position," said Rick Spielman, vice president of player personnel for the Vikings. "There will be a lot of guys go, I think, in those first three rounds from the defensive line. I think that's the heaviest position in this draft."

Spielman said there are a number of good quarterbacks available as well, but there is a larger group of excellent defensive linemen who could play right away.

The Vikings don't have a third-round draft choice, which went to the Patriots in the Randy Moss trade, so they might be in the market for a deal to replace that pick.

"We'll see how that works out, if we have the ability to move that first pick and pick up some draft picks or move out of the second round," Spielman said. "A lot of that will depend on how the draft unfolds. We feel pretty confident that whatever happens on the draft that we're going to get some players that can come in and help us win ballgames."

Spielman, the coaches and the scouts have been working late into the night getting their draft board ready.

"We finished the defensive players on Wednesday, and Thursday we started on offensive players," Spielman said. "We'll have everything probably on the board, with all the opinions from the coaches and the scouts, done by Tuesday.

"We're just working it by position right now. Then what we'll do is we'll rehash it again and then kind of weave it all together. But right now with the coaches in the draft meetings we're focusing on what their position is and kind of focusing on getting them stacked that way."

Spielman said all the coaches and scouts have had a good look at the top draft prospects.

"They had an opportunity to see them at the combine," he said. "They got a chance to visit with them for the first time, some of the guys that were at the Senior Bowl. They had the opportunity to go out and work some of these guys out through the spring and they've got the film evaluations done, so now we're weighing in all their opinions.

"We've had offensive line coaches out there, our defensive line coaches out there, we've had a lot of our coaches basically go out and work some of these guys out personally."

For the first time in three or four years the Vikings have a lot of holes to fill, so it's fortunate that this is being viewed as a deep, quality draft class.

Injury guarantee If you had a recent conversation with former Vikings Jim Marshall or Carl Eller, they will tell you that in the past the NFL could have done better helping injured retired players.

Apparently one thing that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners want to do is to provide an expanded injury guarantee for retired players. According to a letter sent April 12 by Goodell to Emanuel Cleaver II, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Goodell expressed his disappointment that the players didn't accept an offer from the owners to provide an expanded injury guarantee for veteran players. The letter pointed out that for the first time the clubs offered to guarantee up to $1 million of a player's salary for the contract year after an injury.

Goodell and the owners thought this was a great plus for the retired players, who never have been happy with previous plans.

"We were disappointed that the NFL Players Association rejected the offer," Goodell said. "Their insistence on litigation rather than negotiation only delays an agreement on retiree benefits and many other important issues. The lawsuit reflects the union's priorities in that it focuses on issues such as free agency for the most highly paid players in the league. It would do nothing to improve benefits for retirees. That can only be accomplished through collective bargaining "

Players have refused to comment on the labor negotiations since the new meetings in Minneapolis this week.

Jottings • The Vikings' Ryan Longwell leads the league in field goal percentage the past two years, hitting a combined 93.5 of his attempts in 2009 and 2010.

• Former Hopkins standout Travis Boyd scored a short-handed goal in the United States' Under-18 hockey team's 8-1 victory over Slovakia in Germany on Friday. Former Maple Grove star Dan Carlson scored in the third period, and former Burnsville goalie Matt McNeely also appeared in the game, making four saves on five shots.

• St. Paul native and former St. Thomas star pitcher Matt Schuld made his first appearance of the year for the Fort Myers Miracle on Wednesday. He pitched three innings of relief, giving up three hits, two walks, striking out three and allowing no runs.

• Chaska native Brad Hand is 1-1 with a 3.27 ERA and five strikeouts in 11 innings in two starts at Class AA Jacksonville, a Marlins affiliate.

• Former Blaine standout Dan Johnson is in his second season with the Tampa Bay Rays and is hitting .149 with one home run, one double and three RBI.

• According to Sports-Daily Journal, the Wild was 28th out of 30 teams as a draw on the road with an average of 16,499 fans.

• A recent Star Tribune feature on the 2001-02 Gophers men's hockey team showed several members still playing overseas. Barry Tallackson finished his season with the Augsburg Panthers in Germany. Tallackson was the team's second-leading scorer with 55 points (29 goals, 26 assists) in 51 games. Goalie Adam Hauser was with the Vienna (Austria) Capitals, who recently lost in a seven-game playoff series with Salzburg. Hauser appeared in 24 games and had a 2.69 goals-against average. Nick Angell appeared in five games with Avangard Omsk in Russia, a team that also featured former NHL legend Jaromir Jagr. Dan Welch was playing with the Belfast Giants in Ireland, appearing in 57 games and was the team's second-leading scorer with 20 goals to go along with 48 assists. Matt DeMarchi finished his fourth season with Asiago HC in Italy and was the team's top-scoring defenseman with four goals and 24 assists.

• The Gophers have one of their best men's tennis teams in recent years and are 6-1 after beating Penn State on Friday.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. • shartman@startribune.com