EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Southern California tight end Rhett Ellison was out enjoying his Saturday, spending time with family when he received a call from the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota took Ellison with its second pick in Saturday's fourth round of the NFL draft, the 128th overall selection.
Ellison wasn't one of the nervous-type college players waiting anxiously for a phone call from an NFL team. He had other plans for his Saturday.
"(The Vikings) asked me if I was watching the TV, but I was out on the river at that point," Ellison said. "I said, 'No, I'm not watching it.' And they said, 'Well, you're about to be a Minnesota Viking.' They put me on the phone with everybody, but I was crying pretty hard so I don't know if they understood anything I was saying. But I'll have to give them a call back later."
One reason Ellison wasn't paying attention to the draft was he didn't expect to be drafted. It wasn't that he didn't expect his name to be called so early. He didn't expect to be called at all.
"I wasn't really expecting to get drafted or anything like that," Ellison said. "I was pretty shocked and I'm still trying to calm everything down right now."
Ellison said the day was planned to spend with family whether he was drafted or not. He had watched some of the draft, but grew tired of it because "the announcers talking about the same guys over and over again."
Ellison, 6-foot-5 and 251 pounds, said he was preparing for a career outside of football, working on a Master's degree in communications management.
But the Vikings saw enough in Ellison to use one of its three fourth-round picks on the hybrid fullback/tight end. While Minnesota is set with Kyle Rudolph and John Carlson as pass-catching threats in its two tight-end system, there is a blocking void left by the retirement of longtime standout Jim Kleinsasser.
Whether the Vikings look to fill Kleinsasser's role with a tight end or a fullback, Ellison could fit in either place.
"As you noticed, as we were going on down through that third day, all of them are big-time special teams players and Rhett is a great character guy, extremely bright, can play multiple positions," general manager Rick Spielman said. "We lost (tight end Visanthe Shiancoe) and we lost Kleinsasser so we're trying to create as much competition at that third tight end spot as possible. But visiting with Rhett at the combine, I was there personally at his pro day, he does a lot of things for an offense just because of his versatility and his intelligence to do a lot of different things. So he can give you some of the same things we saw in Kleinsasser."
Despite Ellison's belief he wouldn't be drafted, Spielman knew he was soon going to be off the board. Spielman even got caught up in the emotion of the call with Ellison.
"I was like, 'I love you man.,'" Spielman said. "You know what that tells you? It tells me, when we're talking about passion for the game, that kid loves to play football. And just, I'm sure you're going to ask me about (fifth-round pick Robert) Blanton, there's another kid, just reading his quote, that guy loves the game. And if you can get smart intelligent football players who are good football players that love the game as much as these guys do, it gives you a chance."
Spielman concludes first draft: Spielman enjoyed his first draft as the sole decision-maker in the Vikings' war room. He started with a trade an hour before the first round started and added 11 picks along the way, including at least two likely starters. He also swung three trades, first trading back one spot and picking left tackle Matt Kalil and then jumping back into the first round to pick safety Harrison Smith.
"This is what makes the draft so fun. The moving up and down and accumulating picks then using those picks to potentially move back up if you target a player."
The early trades especially had Spielman excited.
"Going into the draft with 10 picks, we knew we were in a great position and, of course, where we were picking at with those ten picks at the top of each round, but to accumulate more picks, yeah, he's a little bit giddy," coach Leslie Frazier said of Spielman. "There's no question about it. He was pretty pumped up after Cleveland agreed. It's good for our team and good for everybody."
A surprise addition: The biggest surprise for the Vikings during the draft was bringing in competition for veteran kicker Ryan Longwell. Minnesota selected Georgia kicker Blair Walsh in the sixth round. Walsh has a strong leg and was one of the top-rated kickers in the draft.
Longwell, 38, had a down season in 2011, finishing 22 of 28 on field-goal attempts. The 78.6 percent conversion rate was the worst rate since 2005 when the typically-reliable kicker did most of his kicking outside as a member of the Green Bay Packers. After just three touchbacks in 2010, Longwell had 19 touchbacks last season with the kickoff line moved up.
But Longwell is entering the second year of a four-year contract and is schedule to make $1.75 million this season.
Walsh certainly has a big leg. He kicked all four years at Georgia and made at least one field goal of 50 yards or more every season. Last year, Walsh was 21 of 35 of field goal attempts and connected on a 56-yarder. He was 46 of 46 on extra point tries. He was 10 of 17 from 50 yards or more during his four years at Georgia.
"I know watching him at the combine he was the best kickoff guy that we saw there as far as averaging almost 4.5 hang time and had a lot of touchbacks and we felt he was the best kickoff guy at the combine," Spielman said. "I know during the combine he's been very successful from plus-50 so you know he does have the leg strength. I believe he went 3 for 3 during the combine workouts. What we were looking at is just value in football players regardless of position and felt he was a good value where we got him."
Vikings like the Trojans, Irish and Razorbacks: With six of its first seven picks in the draft, Minnesota had an eye specifically on USC, Notre Dame and Arkansas.
USC left tackle Matt Kalil was the Vikings' first draft pick on Thursday and his college teammate Ellison soon joined him in purple.
Harrison Smith, the second of two first-round picks by Minnesota, is from Notre Dame. His partner in the Irish defensive backfield, Robert Blanton Jr., was a fifth-round pick by Minnesota. Smith and Blanton join fellow Notre Dame alums Rudolph, Carlson and John Sullivan in the Vikings' locker room.
"To be an ND guy you've got to be a hard worker," Blanton said. "We won't give up and you're going to get a guy that's a beast mentally and physically."
Two of the Vikings three fourth-round selections were Arkansas receivers. Jarius Wright was picked 118th overall and Greg Childs was the 134th pick. Being reunited is nothing new to Wright and Childs. The two have played together dating all the way back to high school.
"I've known Jarius Wright since the third grade, so we've been cool since then," Childs said. "We talked about this one day, what if we end up going to the same NFL team. It would be crazy, we've been together through elementary school, middle school, junior high, high school, same college team, and now we are moving on in life and we still are going to the same team together."
Cook participating in all workouts: Cornerback Chris Cook has made his return to the Vikings' facilities this week, participating in the voluntary workouts. Cook, who was suspended, reinstated and then told to stay away from the team last year resulting from a charge of domestic abuse has been eagerly awaiting the chance to get back with the team.
Cook was acquitted of the charges earlier this offseason and has made sure he's been in the team facilities since the unsupervised workouts for Minnesota began Monday.
"Barring some unforeseen situation we expect him to be a starter for us," coach Leslie Frazier said. "We've had extensive conversations and for him it's going to be an ongoing process of just indoctrinating himself back with his teammates, back with the coaches. But everybody is willing to give Chris an opportunity to show that he's deserving of this opportunity. So we'll see what happens."
Peterson beating teammates: Running back Adrian Peterson's recovery from knee surgery is apparently going very well.
How well?
He's apparently been running sprints against teammates and beating them.
"He actually had a chance to run with our players on Tuesday and he was off to the side working with our trainer Eric Sugarman, and he looked out and saw the guys doing their wind sprints and he says, 'You know, I don't think they're running hard enough,' and Eric allowed him to go out and run with them and he passed them four different times," Frazier said. "He finished in first four different times. I remember Joe Webb saying, 'I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.' He's doing great and we're optimistic that he's going to be ready for that first game. I know that's his goal and we'll just continue to see how he continues to progress, but he's doing great."
Frazier said Peterson is to the point now where he will need to become more comfortable with cutting on his surgically-repaired left knee. Peterson's hope to be ready for the beginning of the season is looking like it might just happen.
"Straight ahead he is doing great, now he has to get to the point where he's comfortable being able to go left to right or right to left and stopping and starting," Frazier said. "One step at a time, right now it is cutting."
The only players missing from the workouts are Percy Harvin, Jared Allen, Michael Jenkins and Ryan Longwell. Allen's absence was expected and Harvin had surgery on his shoulder this week. Harvin is expected to be back when team workouts begin on May 29.
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