By Chip Scoggins
Vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman said the Vikings selected Notre Dame tight end Kyle Rudolph in the second round because his talent was too much to pass up even though the team has three tight ends on the roster -- Visanthe Shiancoe, Jim Kleinsasser and Jeff Dugan.
Spielman was asked whether taking Rudolph so high was related to the fact that Shiancoe is entering the final season on his contract.
"This was a situation, I know we have three tight ends on our roster right now, but when you have a player like that, it's just too good to pass up," he said. "I know we'll sort it all out as we get there. We just wanted to stay true to our board and he was by far the highest player on our board at this time."
The Vikings officials said before the draft that they wanted to get younger at tight end after losing Mickey Shuler to Miami last season. Rudolph battled hamstring injuries all season but Spielman said the Vikings had no concerns about that injury.
"We had no issues with him medically after he was cleared by our doctors," Spielman said. "When he fell to us, we felt that he was too good of a player to pass up. We felt that he has a lot of unique skills as a tight end and we wanted to stay true to our board. That was a situation where there was a player that normally, if he hadn't had that hamstring injury, we wouldn't of even had a shot to get. We feel that we got great value when we got Kyle."
Spielman was asked how Rudolph fits into Bill Musgrave's new offensive system.
"He has a lot of different skill sets," he said. "You can split him out wide, you can put him as an H, or you can put him on the line of scrimmage. He's going to develop into a starting tight end in this league. The most unique thing about him right now is his ability to catch the ball and his route running ability. He'll develop as a blocker as we go along, but the skill set there, it's hard to find guys like that."
