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There are two types of mock drafts.  There are those that are intended to predict what a franchise will do and those that predict what a franchise should do, both from the author’s perspective.

Last year I tried to predict what franchises should do, and my mock turned out to be less accurate than Shaq from the free throw line.

So, this year I have been taking a different approach by trying to predict what franchises will do and that has been an agonizing experience thus far, particularly when trying to place this year’s crop of quarterbacks whom all seem to have draft stock that is, to steal a phrase from Rick Spielman, “etched in oatmeal.”  Add on the fact that we don’t know if free agency and trades will occur before or after the draft and we now have all the makings of a hack blogger sleeping less and driving his wife batty.

The last couple of days have produced a good quantity of tidbits and insights into some of the quarterbacks potentially available to the Vikings.  So, if you are interested in seeing a somewhat comprehensive look at some of the items that have made me so indecisive, then keep reading after the jump.

RYAN MALLETT

As the college season came to a close I was not shy about declaring Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett as my favorite passer in the draft, despite an incident involving public intoxication.

Mallett, however, had since been slammed by unnamed scouts participating in interviews where they made references to having plenty of dirt on Mallett and that the baggage was the type no team would want to carry.

Then we got some possible clarification when NFL Draft Monster ran an article in which they cite multiple sources from within the Arkansas program claiming to have witnessed Mallett using marijuana and cocaine.

In the eyes of the media, Mallett did not do himself any favors by abruptly ending his Combine interview session after repeated questions focused on the drug rumors.  The media and the actual teams are two different stories, however, and there was plenty of post-Combine chatter that Mallett was actually quite impressive during private interviews with teams.

I cannot say for sure if the Vikings met with Mallett during the Combine but we do know that they met with one of his teammates, tight end D.J. Williams, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they snuck in some questions about Mallett.  That isn’t to say they aren’t interested in Williams himself, as he is a fine player in his own right.

Williams is widely regarded as a no-nonsense, high-character player so his opinion of Mallett may carry some weight.

“I’m not going to BS anyone because we all know that Ryan got a public intox charge several years ago here,” Williams said recently. “But he’s grown up so much since then. He’s come a long way. He cares about his team, his teammates and he cares about his future. He’s changed.”

“Then, you want to add the cherry to the ice cream, you have the fact that he played for Coach Petrino. Coach has turned us all from boys into men. It’s not just Ryan, but an entire team that he’s done that with.”

Williams is about to become a professional football player and is not a professional scout, but for what his opinion is worth, he says any NFL team, “would be stupid not to draft Ryan. He’s the best quarterback on the draft board. He can make the throws that no one else can. You talk about the ‘it’ factor, he has it.”

The tight end wasn’t the only Arkansas player to recently endorse Mallet, as offensive tackle Ray Dominguez also spoke up.

“They asked me about Ryan,” Dominguez said of his Combine interviews. “It’s a sad deal what some have written about him. We know Ryan. He had his moments a few years ago, but when he puts on the pads, he’s the guy you want to take you down the field. He’s the man you believe in and the guy you want. I told the guys (at the combine) if you are looking for a leader, Mallett is your guy.”

Glowing endorsements from teammates are not as rare as one might expect, and teammates may have been more candid in their private interviews than while the cameras are rolling, but if these comments don’t push Mallett’s stock upwards then the throws he made at his pro day should.

There have been many NFL insiders and media types that raved about Mallett’s off-the-charts performance during his pro day drills, and even Mallett himself openly agreed that he had a good showing.

“I liked them all,” he said of his passes. “I thought it was a good workout. I was spinning it, the ball was really spinning. It was like being back in practice here.”

Teams looking for a mobile quarterback, however, should not waste their time with Mallett.  He plays incredibly slow, limiting him to the pocket, which was reaffirmed by awful workout numbers highlighted by a 5.38 time in the forty yard dash.  Of course, if a quarterback can make all of the throws and reads and has a quick release, then the lack of mobility becomes a secondary issue.

“I had a bad start,” he said of his forty time. “I don’t really care. Everyone knows I’m not Mike Vick.”

Mallett is correct, everyone knows he is not Mike Vick.

What everyone is currently trying to figure out, however, is if he is Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf.

CAM NEWTON

Newton followed a mixed Combine performance with a mixed pro day performance on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, news broke that multiple teams have scheduled private workouts with Newton.

Those teams include the Panthers, Bills, Redskins, Titans, Dolphins, Bengals, Browns, and… the Vikings.

Fans should not read too much into the Vikings decision to conduct a workout of Newton.  They are likely going to conduct similar workouts with many of this year’s quarterback prospects, especially those near the top of their board.  After all, they will be making defining decisions in the next few months, and they should be looking as closely as they possibly can.

As we have previously discussed, Newton has plenty of red flags of his own, mostly stemming from a series of transgressions that have to make a person wonder about his character and commitment to excellence.

With that being said, the kid is a heck of an interview and is only a few good NFL games away from fulfilling his desire to become an “entertainer and an icon.”  Other than Tim Tebow, the hype surrounding this kid is pretty unrivaled.

More worrisome from a football perspective are Newton’s questionable mechanics.  He seems to be gradually improving, but I would not be surprised if regional scouts (ignoring the revenue potential this kid brings to an organization) for many teams have given him a second or third round grade.  He is constantly being described as “raw” and I would take it one step further and describe Newton as “sloppy.”

I have heard some debate as to why Blaine Gabbert is not criticized as much as Newton for coming out of a spread offense, and I think it has less to do with race (as some have suggested) and more to do with Gabbert being more mechanically sound than Newton.

Newton will surely be on the Vikings radar come April’s Draft, but he seems like a longshot to end up in purple.  Everyone expects him to be selected prior to #12, and the red flags make trading up to get him way too big of a risk.

JAKE LOCKER

Access Vikings beat writer Judd Zulgad, like him or not, is about as well connected with the Vikings as any member of the media.  So, it is understandable that he created a bit of a buzz when he speculated on Twitter that the Vikings are leaning towards drafting Jake Locker as their quarterback of the future.

Last year, Locker defended his decision to return to Washington for his senior season by telling the media that he received a second round grade from the NFL’s Advisory Committee and that he thought he could improve his draft stock with another year in college.

Unfortunately, I just don’t see what Locker did in his senior year that could possibly have helped his cause, and I think he may have actually hurt his draft stock after a relatively miserable season.

A common occurrence I see across the web is a comparison of Locker to Drew Brees.  Considering Brees’ incredible accuracy and Locker’s mobility, however, I think the comparison is really only accurate in terms of height.  Similar height does not make for similar players, however.

The Vikings might be impressed with Locker, and they may even be targeting him as Zulgad speculates, but if they put a value on him that causes them to draft him any higher than with their second round pick, I will be very disappointed.

RICKY STANZI

I was vocally impressed with Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi over the course of last season, but something about his play towards the latter part of the season really turned me off and led me to wonder if he has the “it factor” that we all struggle to define.

R.C. Fischer over at Fantasy Football Metrics recently developed a tested mathematical formula, more detailed than the famous 26-27-60 rule or Bill Parcells’ much-discussed formula, for pegging which quarterbacks have what it takes.

I won’t get into all the details, but for all of you junkies, it is a fascinating read and I recommend doing just that by clicking here.

The end result of the formula is a number assigned to each prospect which can then be compared to past prospects to predict how they will fare in the NFL.  Like any system in which you are using math to judge human beings, it isn’t perfect, but it does place Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, and Peyton Manning into an upper echelon as prospects which accurately portrays the last decade.

What is interesting is that Fischer has been using this formula to predict the future success of this year’s quarterback prospects and none other than Ricky Stanzi comes up as the top Draft-eligible quarterback.

In fact, Stanzi’s score ranks higher than what would have been assigned to Mark Sanchez, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Matt Schaub, and Joe Flacco.  Fischer concludes that the formula suggests that Stanzi could indeed end up being the next steal of the draft… or the next Tom Brady.

Fischer’s system concludes that, like many of the greats, Stanzi is above average in just about every measurable way.  Also, the system produced no “red flags” surrounding Stanzi.

Again, I am certainly not going to declare Ricky Stanzi the next Tom Brady based off of a mathematical system that I am not intimately versed in, but reading his article made me remember something I had somewhat forgotten… I do like Stanzi as a prospect.

MARC BULGER

One thing I strive to do is point you towards opinions that differ from mine, because while I appreciate the loyalty of my readers, I think it is important to get perspectives other than the ones to be found in the jottings of this hack blogger.

So, I was pleased when I went to our mothership NFL Gridiron Gab and found a very comprehensive take on the Vikings quarterback situation (and offense in general) written by Chris Bach of Buccaneers Gab.  It is always fun to get another opinion on matters.

A common thought has been that the Vikings not only need to draft a quarterback but also need to find a viable veteran option as an immediate starter, as well as a mentor to Joe Webb and any rookie passer.

Bach goes through a few of the possible options that could be available and concludes that Marc Bulger should be the veteran coveted by the Vikings, even over guys like Donovan McNabb, Kyle Orton and Carson Palmer.

He believes that the Vikings decision to gamble on Favre results in the need to gamble some more, and he believes that Bulger is the safest bet as he produced the fewest negatives, or red flags anyways, out of all the quarterbacks mentioned in 2010.

Of course, I might consider the fact that Bulger rode the bench for all of 2010 as a negative, but Bach doesn’t see it that way.

I may not agree 100% with the reasoning, but I certainly think the Vikings could do worse than Bulger, especially if signing Bulger on the cheap helps them focus on putting together an offensive line that can give him better protection than Favre received.

JOE WEBB

I want to be clear, because there are a number of avid Joe Webb supporters in these parts, that I do not view quarterback as such an important issue because I dislike Joe Webb in any way.

Charley Walters recently stirred the pot by claiming that “insiders” said Webb is “nowhere close to being an effective starter.”

I will be honest, I think Walters is an idiot, and is the type of guy that gives other sports journalists a bad name.  With that being said, Walters’ sources might be right about Webb, and I personally think Webb did very little in 2010 to suggest he should be handed the starting job on a silver platter.

That isn’t to say I wouldn’t cheer for Webb or wouldn’t want him to be our starter.  I just think it would be simply foolish for the organization to put all their faith in the kid this early in his career. 

Conversely, I would think it wise of the organization to put all their faith in the kid after they put together as much competition at the quarterback position as possible, and he proves he is the best of the bunch.

As far as I am concerned he can have the starting job, but he has to earn it.