'Trader Rick' Spielman a master of the draft-day deal

In a league that has given us "Beast Mode," "the Assassin" and "Purple People Eaters," Rick Spielman jokingly longs for a cooler nickname. But when it's springtime and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell starts reading names and hugging large men, there's really only one moniker that fits the Vikings general manager.

It's plain, it's simple and it's kind of boring, something Spielman isn't when the NFL draft is underway.

"Trader Rick," says Spielman, shaking his head.

Sorry, Rick, but you can't trade nicknames. As for draft picks, well …

Heading into his fourth draft as GM with final say on all personnel decisions, Spielman has made 15 trades involving 39 picks and the exchange of five veterans. At the top of the draft, he has taken seven first-rounders, a league record over a three-year span. At the bottom of the draft, he's had his hands on 11 seventh-rounders, including one that went from Minnesota to New England to Tampa Bay and, you guessed it, back to Minnesota.

All told, Spielman has selected 29 players over 21 rounds in three years. Year 4 starts Thursday and you can bet Trader Rick's trigger finger is twitching. He has only seven picks, including the 11th overall in a first round that could see the Vikings trade down as far as No. 20 and still get similar value at one of their positions of need, not to mention extra picks in later rounds.

A trade that isn't expected involves a certain 2012 NFL MVP. Spielman is adamant in his desire to keep running back Adrian Peterson. Like any team, the Vikings listen to all trade offers. But in this case, they have no expectation that any team will make an offer so grossly lopsided that it results in them trading a future Hall of Famer they expect greatness from in 2015. Especially to a rival NFC team (see: Dallas, Arizona) that they are competing with to reach the Super Bowl.

Peterson has a contract and, unlike the Percy Harvin situation in 2013, the Vikings don't consider Peterson a threat to hold out or be a volatile distraction once he returns. Also working against a Peterson trade is the fact the Vikings aren't allowing teams to have contact with him. So any team interested in making a giant move would have to do so without talking to Peterson or having him take a physical first.

As for what's expected to happen in the draft, the pressure is on. Since Spielman joined the Vikings as vice president of player personnel in 2006, the team has had as many playoff appearances as seasons with 10 or more losses. Ownership bet heavily on him in 2012, when it promoted him to general manager, and doubled down last year when it fired Leslie Frazier as coach and essentially let Spielman handpick Mike Zimmer.

The future looks bright and Spielman will get ample time to build a roster with Zimmer. But it doesn't take a football genius to guess what will happen if things were to collapse again.

"It's funny, but I don't get stressed out," Spielman said. "I really enjoy the pressure. I enjoy the process. I wish you could be perfect on every decision you make, but you're not going to do it. I never feel any pressure. It's more excitement. If it works out, great. If it doesn't work out, I'll take the responsibility for it."

Spielman began his NFL career in 1990 when Ron Hughes, Detroit's director of player personnel at the time, hired him as a college scout.

"Ron was running the draft," Spielman said. "He was very organized, very structured and very detail-oriented. I got a lot of that from him."

Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert, Spielman's closest friend among NFL GMs, was Detroit's pro scouting coordinator at the time. After he went to Pittsburgh, he hired Hughes as college scouting coordinator in 2003 and credited Hughes' system with helping Pittsburgh win Super Bowl titles in the 2005 and 2008 seasons.

Another one of Spielman's mentors taught him a different side of the business. The late Mark Hatley was Bears vice president of player personnel when he helped hire Spielman as Chicago's director of pro personnel in 1997.

"Mark Hatley was more of a riverboat gambler," Spielman said. "From him, I learned to not be afraid to take chances."

When Hatley didn't get promoted to Bears general manager in 2001, he left Chicago for a job with the Packers. Later that fall, the Bears went 13-3 and won the division with 22 starters acquired by Hatley.

In the summer of 2004, Hatley, 54, died of a heart attack at his home in Green Bay. To this day, Spielman remembers Hatley's fearlessness when it comes to wheeling and dealing draft picks.

Of Spielman's seven first-round picks the past three years, only defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd was taken with the pick that originally belonged to the Vikings. In 2012 and '14, Spielman traded down one spot with Cleveland, got the players he wanted, extra picks and then traded back into the first round. In between those years, Spielman traded disgruntled receiver Percy Harvin for a first-round pick in 2013 (Xavier Rhodes), a seventh-round pick (Travis Bond, who is no longer with the team) and a third-round pick in 2014 (Jerick McKinnon).

Spielman has had some home runs at the top of the draft. He has also swung and missed. Other trades and picks could end up going into the history books either way.

For example, in 2013, the Vikings traded picks in the second, third, fourth and seventh rounds to the Patriots to move up to No. 29 and select receiver Cordarrelle Patterson. When Patterson was All-Pro first-team as a rookie kick returner, the trade looked good for the Vikings. A year later, Patterson regressed and was benched, his future in doubt. Meanwhile, the Patriots won the Super Bowl with two defenders they acquired as part of the Patterson bonanza, including outside linebacker Jamie Collins, the second-round pick who had a breakout year.

At the other end of the draft, Spielman loves to take as many Day 3 swings as possible. For every Trevor Guyton or Everett Dawkins, he keeps swinging for a Shamar Stephen.

A year ago, Spielman flipped fifth-round picks with Carolina and got an extra seventh-rounder. Then he traded the fifth-rounder to Atlanta for picks in the sixth and seventh rounds. At the end of the day, trading that original fifth-round pick led to three rookies who made the team and contributed: Safety Antone Exum Jr. (182nd), nose tackle Stephen (220th) and cornerback Jabari Price (225th). Stephen already is an important part of the defensive line rotation.

Right or wrong, Spielman will be judged primarily on the Christian Ponder pick, which came the year before he had final say, and the Teddy Bridgewater pick last year. Ponder failed, but Bridgewater could be Trader Rick's redemption at quarterback. And all it cost was a fourth-round pick to move up from 40th overall to the final pick of the first round.

"You go to sleep [early] last year and you miss Teddy at No. 32," tight end Kyle Rudolph said. "So I'll definitely make sure I'm watching all 32 picks this year."