The Vikings will conclude their Top 30 visit with draft prospects at Winter Park on Wednesday. Vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman said Tuesday that most of the information-gathering in the draft evaluations will be complete by the end of this week.
The team will begin setting the draft board next week with the coaching staff and scouts. Spielman said five different positions could be in play for the Vikings with the 12th overall pick, but he said everyone will be in the same page once the draft begins April 28.
"Yes. … Draft day there are no discussions," he said. "We know exactly what we're going to do and we're going to know the options. We don't talk about players on draft day. Everything has been discussed and everything has been stacked. We put them in specific order – if this guy is here, we're going one, two, three. These are the three guys -- we're going this guy first, this guy second, this guy third."
Spielman was asked about the possibility of trading back.
"We're going to be working off just how our draft board is stacked," he said. "So if we do move back -- and I will put us in draft scenarios where we move back to X spot -- what are more likely our options going to be, who are the players we're going to be looking at? The biggest other thing is you've got to know where your threats are too. That was where we were excited to go up and get Toby last year and knew that Houston had a need for a running back too. So you've got to know potentially how far if you move down, can you lose that player? And then you've got to worry about the guys coming behind you. Can someone potentially move up? Let's say you move down too far, if someone jumps you coming back up. Those are all the games that are played on draft day. But those are all the scenarios that I'll put us through and we'll discuss and have a game plan for each of those scenarios."
Both Spielman and coach Leslie Frazier said the Top 30 visit is an important part of the process as they begin to finalize evaluations on the prospects.
"It gives us a chance to sit down with guys that we're thinking about drafting and get to know them a little bit," Frazier said. "And for those we were not able to check medically or who were not able to attend the combine we get a chance to do some medical checks also. It's great for our coaches, it's great for all of us to be able to interact one-on-one. ... Each and every guy that's here I'll sit down with him and just try and get a feel for how they would fit on our football team. That's important. It's more than just talent. We try and tell kids that. But we have to determine whether or not it's a fit or not."
