The NFL Draft starts one month from today on May 8 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. The Minnesota Vikings are beginning to bring in players for private workouts and discussions and one name that may surprise some fans out there is former LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger. The team will go to Baton Rouge to see his pro day and then meet with him individually. It must make some fans think that the team is shifting their focus outside of looking for a quarterback in the first round with the eighth overall pick.
Mettenberger is a very good quarterback and at 6-5 has the height to see over offensive lines at the NFL level. The question that needs to be answered about him though is whether or not his torn ACL from November has healed enough to where he will be able to play on Opening Day if the team wants to do that. They could easily go with Matt Cassel for the first few games to give Mettenberger more time to recover especially if the team can get him in the second round. There are likely going to be a few great QB options still there at No. 8 but with the defensive holes still there, looking elsewhere probably would be a better option.
He could be a very good fit for the Vikings as well for one big fact. He has one of the strongest throwing arms in this year’s draft class. The team is playing outside for the next two years outside of the controlled conditions of a dome. Minnesota isn’t a kind place in the winter time and with cold winds blowing around, someone who can throw the ball accurately through the wind would be a great help. The Vikings could draft Mettenberger with the No. 40 overall pick and let him sit for the first three or four games to let him get comfortable and then unleash him on the NFC North after that.
The division right now looks like an uphill climb for the Vikings with three teams in front of them who all look capable of winning 10 or more games in 2014. The team is in the market for a young quarterback after the Christian Ponder experience hasn’t gone the way the team would have wanted. Mettenberger could be the next option for the team to explore. He is someone that fans in Minnesota may get an extended look at sooner than later if the Vikings decide to draft him in early May.