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I know Gates was a staple of the Chargers offense, when Norv was there ..

I am sure not having two key guys starting; HOF calibur talent Peterson
,and Rudolf, who never stays healthy, affected Turners play calling.

dead_poet wrote: Interesting.

Yeah, for me this pick had Norv's prints all over it.
Rudolph is going to have some competition from a serious athlete....and that's a great thing IMO.

The Breeze wrote: Yeah, for me this pick had Norv's prints all over it.
Rudolph is going to have some competition from a serious athlete....and that's a great thing IMO.

Too bad Pruitt doesn't have Rudolph's size (or Rudolph Pruitt's speed). Zimmer is apparently a guru...can he also be a wizard?

dead_poet wrote:
Too bad Pruitt doesn't have Rudolph's size (or Rudolph Pruitt's speed). Zimmer is apparently a guru...can he also be a wizard?

Maybe Turner is the wizard...he's very Snape-like

In MyCole Pruitt, Vikings see echoes of past success

"He sees guys that remind him of guys in the past," coach Mike Zimmer said of Turner. "Norv was pretty adamant throughout the draft about, this is a guy that we’re really intrigued with. He runs 4.5 [second 40-yard dash], has a chance to be a good tight end, and it’s really important for the tight ends in our offense, as you know. He had a lot of say on that one."

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/ ... st-success

dead_poet wrote:In MyCole Pruitt, Vikings see echoes of past success
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/ ... st-success

Say what you will about Norv but he's done wonders for a lot of tight ends out there, if he see's Pruitt capable of Antonio Gates / Jordan Cameron production hopefully Pruitt is the next in line of successful tight ends in Turners scheme.

mondry wrote: Say what you will about Norv but he's done wonders for a lot of tight ends out there, if he see's Pruitt capable of Antonio Gates / Jordan Cameron production hopefully Pruitt is the next in line of successful tight ends in Turners scheme.

I agree. I'll be keeping an eye on him in camp.

Interesting Pruitt is only two years younger than Rudolph. And older-ish senior.

The way Rudolph has played when he was on the field, Pruitt is probably the best receiving tight end on the roster. Didn't matter how good Rudolph's hands were, he couldn't get open. Hopefully he's fully healthy and shows it.

Demi wrote:The way Rudolph has played when he was on the field, Pruitt is probably the best receiving tight end on the roster. Didn't matter how good Rudolph's hands were, he couldn't get open. Hopefully he's fully healthy and shows it.

Obviously not.....he was hurt most of the season so I don't know what you expect. If he's healthy, he's the best TE on our roster.

Kyle Rudolph has missed 16 games over his four seasons with the Vikings.
Rudolph was also consistently in the training room at Notre Dame, meaning he has played just two full seasons over his last six. He's been hampered by foot fracture, knee sprain, ankle sprain, hamstring pull and abdominal tear

I expect him to not be healthy...

Maybe, going out on a limb here, Rudolph is released after this year?
A lot of money for 1/2 season !
Turner will see very little return on the Rudolph investment and prefer Ford and Pruitt.
Another cap casualty?

I'm also believing the move to pick Pruitt speaks some to how disappointing Rudolph has been in terms of being able to produce, for whatever reason... and I'm all for it.

Rudolph is a great talent but we are getting very little out of the TE spot other than red zone the past coupla seasons.

The Breeze wrote:I'm also believing the move to pick Pruitt speaks some to how disappointing Rudolph has been in terms of being able to produce, for whatever reason... and I'm all for it.

Rudolph is a great talent but we are getting very little out of the TE spot other than red zone the past coupla seasons.

They got about 750 yards and 5 TDs out of the TE position last year. It would definitely be nice to get more and when healthy, Rudolph can give them more. Hopefully, he'll be able to play 16 (or more!) healthy games this season.

Personally, I didn't see any connection between the Pruitt pick and Rudolph, at least not in the sense that the former indicates anything about how the Vikes view the latter. Maybe it does but I saw the pick as another "we like this athlete and want to see if we can develop him" move.

I liked what we saw from Ford last year. It will be interesting to see if he takes another step forward in his development in 2015.

Mothman wrote:
They got about 750 yards and 5 TDs out of the TE position last year. It would definitely be nice to get more and when healthy, Rudolph can give them more. Hopefully, he'll be able to play 16 (or more!) healthy games this season.

Personally, I didn't see any connection between the Pruitt pick and Rudolph, at least not in the sense that the former indicates anything about how the Vikes view the latter. Maybe it does but I saw the pick as another "we like this athlete and want to see if we can develop him" move.

I liked what we saw from Ford last year. It will be interesting to see if he takes another step forward in his development in 2015.

I like Ford too and he was the red zone production I was referring to.

Granted, I saw very few games last season, but it seemed to me they had little luck in stretching the middle of the field....basically something I'd expect Rudolph to do quite well.

I connect the pick to Rudolph's lack of production based on the importance of the TE getting downfield in Turner's offense and the recent post by DP that stated how hot Norv was for Pruitt prior to the draft. The fact that the kid is such an athlete just further suggests to me that they want to be more dynamic at TE. Pure speculation for the sake of conversation on my part.

I'm a huge Rudolph fan...but I'm getting the feeling he won't be able to cut the mustard much longer, if at all. Would love to be wrong about that.

Rudolph still has a ton of talent, he just has to stay healthy. The last time he did he made the probowl with Ponder at QB and went on to win probowl MVP. I wouldn't write him off just yet, maybe he'll get hurt again and if he does have a significant injury maybe he will be on his way out. But their are plenty of 2 tight end sets that can be used with Pruitt so they can still co-exist.