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Now that we saw the schedule, do you think a safety like Obi Melifonwu is a priority with all these good quarterbacks we are set to face? -- Curtis Moore Easton, PA
Teams know who they will play in the next season well before the schedule is released, Who you play is determined by the NFL's scheduling formula and your order of finish within your division. The schedule release just sets the dates of your games with those opponents. Nothing that teams learned from the schedule release last week will impact their evaluations of prospects or team needs.
Do we get any compensatory picks in the draft this year? We should with all the players we lost. -- Charles Daniel Tennessee
No, the Vikings have no compensatory selections in this year's draft. Remember, the free agents the Vikings lost in the last couple months count toward next year's compensatory selection formula, not this year's. The compensatory selections handed out for this year's draft were based on free agent losses and gains by teams back in the 2016 offseason.
What are the odds we trade two 3rd-rounders for a 2nd-rounder if the right player drops? Cleveland needs a lot and could be willing to trade. What do you think? -- Gerald Goblirsch
GM Rick Spielman has demonstrated the willingness to be aggressive in that way to go up and get a player he covets, so I wouldn't rule this out. I still think the Vikings look forward to having three selections on Friday night, but that won't stop them from doing something else if they feel it's in the best interests of the team.
As for possible trade partners, one place to start is with teams who have a deficit of picks because they are potentially willing to move back in order to gain picks. As of this point, there is really only one team between the Vikings 2nd-round pick (No. 48) and the end of the round who has a deficit – Atlanta (six selections total), and they own the second-to-last pick of the round. Ten teams have a surplus (eight selections or more), so they will have the least motivation to move, which also means they have more leverage. There are five teams, though, who have seven selections in this draft – (Dallas, Houston, Tampa Bay, Miami, NY Jets), so they could be compelled to move out of the second round and into the third in order to garner more picks if another team blows them away with an offer.
Any chance the Vikings stay on the east coast between their Week 13 and Week 14 games? Maybe like the College of Charlotte? Their last regular season game is at the end of November! With very few home games in the second half of our season, I was wondering if this might be a good idea in between our second and third straight road game! Skol Vikes! -- Michael Harrington
Interesting idea. Michael is suggesting the Vikings leave Atlanta after their Week 13 game against the Falcons and fly to the Charlotte area to spend the week practicing there before the Week 14 game against the Panthers, as opposed to flying all the way back home to Minnesota after the Atlanta game and then flying all the way back to the East coast for the Carolina game. Ordinarily this may not be a thought, but because it's a rare instance in which the Vikings have three consecutive games on the road, a traveling schedule like that would take away one long flight and significantly shorten another. I don't expect it'll happen, but it's an interesting thought.
How is it possible that the Vikings play in Green Bay late in the season three years in a row? The NFL should just rotate early and late games every year. That is a huge benefit to Green Bay. Please don't blow off the real question with statements like "We beat them up there two years ago." You have seen Green Bay's record in December. There is no reason these games should not be rotating every year. -- John Seiler
It's fair to question why Green Bay gets to host the Vikings in Week 16 or Week 17 for three years in a row, but it's not fair to suggest it's an easy fix and that these late-season divisional games should be on a rotation annually. It's just not that easy to schedule games in a league with 32 teams in 31 different stadiums and with as many broadcast partners and broadcast windows as the NFL has. Throw in local conflicts every week across cities in the League, London games, bye weeks and flex scheduling, just to name a few important factors, and the scheduling process is complicated. The League does a great job creating a schedule each year.
