/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/11284441/20121013_tjg_ad8_382.0.jpg)
With the 25th pick in Pride Of Detroit's 2013 NFL mock draft, the Minnesota Vikings select Tennessee wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson. DLions4Eva is serving as the Vikings' general manager, and his reasoning for the pick is below.
I had a few different options here, as I saw that I could also grab a linebacker or a corner, but I wouldn't have gotten similar value. I simply couldn't pass up on the best wide receiver in the entire draft in Cordarrelle Patterson from Tennessee.
He is the best player available for a need and the best wide receiver in the entire draft, and he fell all the way to 25. How lucky were the Vikes to get this guy? Very. He is 6'2" and ran a sub 4.4 40 at the combine. He has decent hands (though not great), runs okay routes (but not great) and has great speed. His double moves are absolutely lethal as well.
He may be raw to a certain degree, but his size and playmaking ability are off the charts. He can grow into a good route runner with time and can also improve on his drops. His size makes it very hard for corners to jam him or even tackle him at all. He consistently gets separation because of his speed. He can outleap just about any corner in the NFL if he tries.
Minnesota has Greg Jennings and nobody else. Patterson has been considered by many to be the best receiver in the draft, including myself, and despite some of his flaws, this guy will be a big target for Christian Ponder and should be an immediate contributor right away.
He, alongside Jennings and Kyle Rudolph with Adrian Peterson in the backfield, make this offense look a lot scarier than last year. What also helps is the fact that Patterson played in the West Coast Offense in college, so once he gets the terminology down, he won't have much of a learning curve. This pick, to me, is so perfect that if it were a real draft, I'd be jealous of how much value Minnesota got at pick No. 25.
This guy should be a threat to any corner or safety in the league and instantly makes Minnesota's passing attack way better. If teams try to double-team him, they leave Jennings single-covered and vice versa, which will exploit many mismatches and allow AP to run even more wild. Patterson should be a game changer as early as this season.
--
Check out the 2013 Pride Of Detroit Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.