The Minnesota Vikings have scheduled a meeting with Matt Kalil and it looks like whoever wants Robert Griffin III is going to be trading up to get the Rams second overall pick rather than the Vikings third overall, so Kalil to the Vikings is starting to look like a lot more of a certainty than it was before.
The new SB Nation 2012 NFL Mock Draft certainly thinks so as well, giving Kalil to the Vikings at No. 3 as we're used to seeing at this point.
The Vikings need help on the offensive line, specifically at left tackle, to open running lanes for Adrian Peterson and protect Christian Ponder's back. Kalil can step in as a rookie and be an immediate starter at left tackle playing at a high level. Kalil is too good for the Vikings to pass up at No. 3.
The biggest question at this point is going to be how the combine affects things. If Kalil has a terrible day at the combine, he may start to get questioned and a guy like Riley Reiff will have a shot to take precedence over him. Unlikely, but we've certainly seen stranger things happen because of the NFL combine than the most highly touted lineman lose stock to a competitor.
More than likely, we'll just see Kalil continue to get mocked to the Vikings as his stock continues to rise as the best lineman in the draft. We'll see if he really is 'too good for the Vikings to pass up at No. 3' though, since the Vikings have been plenty open when it comes to talking about trading their pick down.
If they do trade down they could probably get a bundle for the pick since there's plenty of teams out there that could use Kalil on their offense, though perhaps teams would be skeptical of going up quite that high just for a lineman and not for a skill player like a QB. Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck are both almost guaranteed to be gone by that point, after all.
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