Vikings notes: Spielman offers no clues on draft approach

The local media arrived at Winter Park on Tuesday hoping to capture a little clarity on what the Vikings might do Thursday with the No. 11 overall pick. General Manager Rick Spielman, speaking at his annual pre-draft news conference, made sure to give them anything but.

He said the Vikings could use the pick on an offensive lineman. Or a pass rusher. Or a wide receiver or defensive back.

Trading up? He didn't rule it out. And trading down? Of course Spielman and the Vikings, who have seven draft picks, would love to add more.

"We are wide open on any direction that we're going to go," Spielman said.

Thanks for nothing, Rick.

While Spielman understandably did not reveal how the team's draft board is stacked, he did admit there is a smaller first tier of prospects and a larger cluster of similarly rated prospects in a second tier. He said that might give the Vikings an opportunity to address a need with their first pick without sacrificing prospect value.

"I think when you go from the seventh or eighth player [on the draft board] down to the 20th player, I don't know if there's that much difference," Spielman said. "We think they're all very talented, but we think they're all close in talent. … If those [prospects] are that close, then what are we going to do to fill a need?"

"When draft day comes, you can go in with a plan," Spielman said. "But you know, it's like a game. Things happen, you adjust and move on the fly."

With the start of the draft looming, Spielman once again reiterated the organization's stance that running back Adrian Peterson would still be on the team by weekend's end.

"Adrian Peterson is under contract, his suspension was lifted and we're looking forward to having Adrian Peterson back here as a Minnesota Viking in 2015," Spielman said. "And that's the end of the story."

But asked explicitly if there was "no chance he'll be traded this week," Spielman did leave himself a little bit of wiggle room should the organization's stance change.

"I think Coach [Mike] Zimmer stated it pretty clear that we have no interest in trading Adrian Peterson, and we don't," Spielman said. "I think if our organization didn't believe in Adrian Peterson, he probably wouldn't be here today."

"We really took another step forward this year from the analytics and we really grew that department and how we're looking at analyzing some things," he said.

While Spielman was reluctant to share details, he said the Vikings have hired an outside consultant to help provide the scouting staff analytics to work with and guidance on how they should be contextualized.

Spielman said the Vikings used advanced statistics in some cases to break ties between equally graded players.

He also admitted that analytics played a large role in the selection of running back Jerick McKinnon in the third round last year.

One of the biggest strengths of this draft is an abundance of pass rushers. But many are currently undersized to play defensive end in 4-3 fronts, leaving teams to project how heavy they can get and whether they will fit in specific schemes.