Troy Williamson: Gone but Not Forgotten

If a picture's worth 1000 words, then I guess I can stop typing right here. The Troy Williamson era is officially over in Minnesota. Yes, yesterday the Vikes dealt the 7th overall pick from the 2005 draft, and the last remaining player that was involved in that awesome Randy Moss deal, to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a 6th round pick in the upcoming draft. This picture, taken from that same Strib story, really says it all for a guy who was incredibly fast, but just had no idea how to catch a football, especially on deep routes, which is supposed to be his specialty. This was a key drop in a game against Denver last year where he was WIDE OPEN! That's generally when most of his drops came, when he was streaking down field, a good five yards past the defenders. A good throw would be made, and Williamson would act like he was blindfolded. I remember a catch that hit him in the back of the head, and another that bounced right off the facemask. He couldn't locate the deep ball if you gave him Google maps.

It's of course fitting that the Jags get Williamson, since Mike Tice, the coach who drafted him, is employed there now. Williamson is a great example of why you shouldn't put too much stock in the combine workouts. He was a mediocre college receiver who ran some crazy 40 time at the combine (a 4.3 something or other), and despite his lack of on-field success, Tice was so blown away he had to draft him with the 7th overall pick. Actually when you look at that entire 2005 draft, which was awful, it shows that Tice shouldn't have been allowed to evaluate talent, let alone coach it.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what the Jags think they're going to do with Williamson. It's one thing when a receiver has concentration issues, but it's another when the guy just cannot react to the football when it's in the air. Last I checked, that's not really something you can learn. Oh well, a 6th round pick isn't much, but it's better than nothing.

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On the free agent front, the Panthers signed free agent wide receiver Mushin Muhammad, who was arguably the best receiver available in a weak class. I had read the Vikes were interested, but it makes since for Muhammad to return to the one place he had a lot of success before departing for big free agent dough with the Bears.

Still on the market are names like Jerry Porter, Bernard Berrian, and Marty Booker, and I'd love to see the Vikes sign at least two of those guys. There's plenty of spots available and if we're to believe Rick Spielman when he says Minnesota will be aggressive in spending the almost $30 million they'll have under the cap, then we'd better see at least either Porter or Berrian in purple next year. I'd also like to see them take a run at former 1st rounder DE Justin Smith and S Adieu Williams, both from Cincinnati. Yes, the Bungles D has been pretty awful the last couple of years, but if the price isn't too high, they'd be good gambles to take, and would give the Vikes more flexibility in the draft, especially with their 1st pick at #17.

WR, DE, and S are definitely their 3 big need areas (I would argue QB but the Vikes seem to disagree. After cutting Kelly Holcumb it looks as though they'll add another veteran, but probably just for depth and not so much to push Tavaris Jackson. David Carr anyone?), and it'd be nice to shore up a few of those areas so you can either take the best player available at 17, or trade down. Personally if they keep the pick I'd love to see them take Oklahoma WR Malcolm Kelly (who probably won't be there) or Texas WR Limas Sweed, who's a bit of a sleeper because he's a big-time athlete, and produced when they threw him the ball, but was hurt for part of last year.

I want no part of Cal's Desean Jackson, no matter how fast he ran at the combine. He's 169 pounds and last year, with a veteran team around him, he should have been a Heisman contender. Instead, he was disappointing at best, and will be lucky to be anything more than a #3 WR and return man in the NFL. Not a bad guy to gamble on in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th, but not in the first round.