Written by Allen Kenney | 24 April 2009

We're in the home stretch of the first round, reaching AD's Vikings at 22. Speaking of which, Minny's biggest problem is that it has no offensive threats aside from the best running back in football. Enter Jeremy Maclin. Truth be told, though, Homerism doesn't share most scouts' enthusiasm for this Mizzou burner.

To be clear, it's not that I don't like Maclin's potential in the NFL. I just don't like him as a top-10 pick. If you watched Maclin closely during the past couple seasons, you might have noticed that he was the consumate "spread" receiver in the Missouri offense: he ran a number of short patterns designed for him to catch the ball on the run and make moves against less-skilled defenders in space. For example, he did a lot of damage on bubble screens. He rarely had to make catches in situations where he was closely defended, and he had a tendency to put the ball on the ground when he did. Compare that to Michael Crabtree, for instance, who played in a spread system but made a far higher number of difficult grabs in traffic or against the sideline.

Still, Maclin is fast and shifty in the open field. The Vikes desperately need some speed and big play ability on the outside to keep defenses honest. At this point in the draft, Maclin seems to be a pretty good option.

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