Friday Mailbag: Ranking more stuff and Hockenson's future

Fans brought some very unique rankings requests to the table to wrap up Ranking Stuff Week

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Happy Friday, everyone. Well, this puts a bow on Ranking Stuff week. If you missed the pieces on where the Vikings offensive weapons, Mount Rushmores, QB categories or QB/coach tiers, you can see them here. Hopefully you’re all reading this from a lake or cabin or in between golf holes. Enjoy the creative rankings that fans brought to the table and a few other interesting questions…

@Sladetrade Would love to see a ranking of Vikings WRs drafted over the last 10 years including route running and high pointing skill sets along with separation ability. And throw in top end speed in mph just for fun.

The answer to all those skills except speed is Jefferson and Diggs at the top so how about we do it this way: I’ll rank all the receivers in order by how good they are/were and then the top three fastest.

Here’s the overall order: Jefferson, Diggs, KJ Osborn, Cordarrelle Patterson, Bisi Johnson, Laquon Treadwell, Jalen Nailor, Ihmir Smith-Marsette, Rodney Adams, Dillon Mitchell, Moritz Boehringer.

Fastest by 40 time is Moritz, Patterson, JJ, Mitchell. But I’d say Nailor is the fastest to my eye than Mitchell.

Jordan Addison could get to No. 3 on this list by October.

@aweste1 Best football names in Vikings history

My 10 favorite in no particular order and with no particular line of reasoning…

Jeff Overbaugh, Carlester Crumpler, Wasswa Serwanga, Buster Rhymes, Gabe Northern, Ciatrick Fason, Devin Aromashodu, Fuad Reveiz, Al Noga, Mick Tinglehoff

Honorable mention: Holton Hill only because Everson Griffen called him “Hilton Holton.”

@KAAAAAHN_tk421 How about the best/strangest boneheaded plays either by a Vikings player or an opponent

Is being the 12th man in the huddle a play?

If we’re including opponents in all of team history that’s going to be a pretty hard list to make. How about since I started covering the team in 2016?

Again, no particular order…

— Thielen punt return fumble vs. Dallas (2016)

— Sean Payton running at Linval Joseph right before the Minneapolis Miracle (2017)

— Stacy Coley setting the ball down on a kickoff vs. Green Bay (2018)

— Xavier Rhodes kicking a flag vs. Rams (2018)

— Kirk throwing backward to Latavius Murray vs. Seattle (2018)

— Matt Patricia pretty much every game (2019-2021)

— The Eagles attempting a pass with their kicker (2019)

— The Dan Bailey Game vs. Bucs (2020)

— The time the guy on the sideline got a 15-yard penalty for touching the Ravens player (2021)

— That special teams coach kicking to Cordarrelle Patterson, giving up a touchdown and then trying to fight Mike Zimmer on the sideline (2021)

— KJ Osborn through the legs on a punt return (2021)

— The Jefferson pass to Kirk in the playoff game (2022)

@singlepayer1978 Rank our best kickers, and make everyone cry.

We have to do this relative to era and Viking career only….

1. Fred Cox

2. Ryan Longwell

3. Gary Anderson

4. Fuad Reveiz

5. Kai Forbath

6. Blair Walsh

7. Rich Karlis

8. Dan Bailey

9. Morten Andersen

10. Scott Sisson

@Skol_Doc Rank team jerseys Rank press box amenities/view Top 5 favorite players to interview Top 5 awk media experiences (I’m thinking of Patricia respect the process type things) Top 5 influential people on your career Rank top 10 game day snacks/food

— San Francisco was the best press box I’ve been in for food but my home seat in US Bank Stadium is the best for view.

— Latavius Murray, Terence Newman, Patrick Peterson, Sean Mannion, Bisi Johnson

— Life as a reporter is constant awkward experiences but two of my favorites were when Dane Mizutani asked Patrick Peterson about leadership and Peterson said, “I’m a natural born leader” and then stared down Dane for like 5 seconds without speaking. One time I asked Bill Belichick about why his QB sneaks work and he said one word, “Execution,” and just left it there.

— I’m not sure I can make a list of influential people in my career, there’s been so many over the years. I’m learning from talented people around me every day. I can say the person in media who I’ve tried to imitate the most is Zach Lowe.

@dantaylor26 Heartbreaking losses is too obvious, so maybe stupidest losses? Games where we found the most improbable ways to lose, like starting Josh Freeman on MNF

Again, in Vikings history there’s probably two dozen of these but the most improbable losses since I’ve covered the team:

— Chicago 2016

— Detroit 2016 when Prater kicked the 59-yarder

— Buffalo 2018

— Wilson game-winning drive in Seattle 2020

— The Cooper Rush Game

— The Winless Lions game

@burnretina Most memorable plays by most average players. I'll put Ponder absolutely trucking Lance Briggs as no. 1

Same deal, since 2016…

— David Morgan long snapping after Kevin McDermott got hurt

— Obvious Case Keenum throwing the Minneapolis Miracle pass (2017)

— Aldrick Robinson catching touchdowns vs. the Rams (2018)

— Anthony Harris picking off Drew Brees in the playoffs (2019)

— Mike Boone going off against the Chargers (2019)

— Jordan Brailford sacking Mike Glennon (2020)

— CJ Ham go route vs. Ravens (2021)

— Duke Shelley PBU vs. Bills (2022)

@SKOLSTAHL Can you answer me how @KeyJayandMax can leave @JJettas2 off their Top 5 list? How are we as @Vikings fans supposed to react to such craziness?

They probably just made the list without any effort at all and forgot to put him on it by mistake. The only way to react is by going to Keyshawn Johnson’s house and holding up a TV with Jefferson highlights until he comes out and personally apologizes. Or never consuming football content again, selling all of your worldly possessions and moving to the middle of the woods in Montana. Or baking food that looks like Keyshawn, Jay and Max and then angrily eating it. Or by only ever listening to the Purple Insider podcast!

@oldbreedwriter As long as you are ranking things, how do you rank the various NFL play-by-play and color announcers? The same question for the pregame shows. Thanks.

Let me first say that I’m not much of an expert on announcers these days because I’m covering games and don’t get to hear many of them.

PXP: Dick Enberg, Pat Summerall and Al Michaels

Color: John Madden, Dan Dierdorf, Joe Theismann

@WarleyOwl A very general sports question. What’s your three greatest sporting moments across all sports? The ones with those visceral, feel it in your soul moments that you’ll never forget?

Geez, that’s super hard. I’ve watched a lot of sports, man. What comes to mind first for all-time great moments that had the most emotional reaction from me were Michael Jordan hitting the game-winner against Utah, The Mr. November home run in the ‘01 World Series by Jeter and Dirk finally winning an NBA title.

@RealChadStevens Two part: Lewis Cine comeback for real? Did you notice any rookies that opened your eyes in camp?

Well, he’s already back from the injury so the comeback from that is complete. His overall narrative isn’t really a “comeback” though because you have to be somewhere first to come back and since he was Safety No. 4 last year coming out of camp, he’s in the same starting position. Mekhi Blackmon stood out to me in minicamp because he was getting work with the ones. It won’t be until a few weeks into training camp that we get a real understanding of where those rookies stand though.

@kyleshaner If you could only bring back one of these, which would you choose: neck rolls or the Vikings’ fire-breathing dragon?

Easily the dragon. The neck roll thing is selfish on my part. The fans deserve pyrotechnics.