Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY
One of the reasons that I set the cut off at 1980 was that we were three years into the draft being shortened to 12 rounds. In the first 16 drafts, teams would just throw darts even more than they do now. With a three year transition, how teams deal with the shortage of rounds becomes more clear.
Let’s start with the first 20 years from 1980-1999. Here is how the Vikings drafted.
- 286 quarterbacks drafted
- 7 Vikings quarterback selection
- 2.45% of all quarterbacks taken (below expected by nearly 1%)
The expected quarterbacks taken should be between 3-4%. One thing that changed a lot during this 20 years was how many teams were in the National Football League.
- 28 teams from 1980-1994
- 30 teams from 1995-1998
- 31 teams from 1999-2001
- 32 from 2002-present
Throughout that time, the Vikings have tried the veteran option way too many times along with starting players they took in the later round years after they were drafted in round nine or later. Here is list of the 12 quarterbacks that started a game for the Vikings in that time.
- Tommy Kramer
- Steve Dils
- Wade Wilson
- Archie Manning
- Tony Adams
- Rich Gannon
- Sean Salisbury
- Jim McMahon
- Warren Moon
- Brad Johnson
- Randall Cunningham
- Jeff George
Wilson and Kramer were the quarterbacks for the majority of the 1980’s but they rotated and got injured often. Of course, it was a different era then, but the point remains that they haven’t been able to identify a quarterback.
That was exponentially more of an issue once Dennis Green became the head coach. Instead of trying to draft a quarterback, he constantly was signing veterans to try and stay competitive. It’s not all to different from how Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is approaching the competitive rebuild, except Green didn’t try to get a quarterback until he unloaded Johnson for 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks after the 1998 season.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Vikings Wire…