Sharrif K. Floyd born May 28, 1991. He played college football for the Florida Gators, and was recognized as an All-American. Following his 2012 junior season, Floyd announced that he would forgo his senior college football season and was selected in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft.
Early years
Floyd was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended George Washington High School in Philadelphia, where he played for the Washington Eagles high school football team. He totaled over 50 tackles, two sacks and seven tackles for losses during his junior season despite being hampered by an ACL tear for part of the season. He received an invitation to the annual U.S. Army All-American Combine in January 2009, but initially could not afford the travel costs to San Antonio, Texas. With help from special-education students, Floyd baked brownies and sold them at school for weeks to raise the money. He was able to make the trip and earned first-team all-combine honors. After his senior season at Washington High School, he was named a high school All-American by USA Today, Parade magazine, and EA Sports. He also received additional funds from a third party to visit campuses during the recruiting process. Floyd struggled with a rough childhood, bouncing between multiple homes before settling in Gainesville.
Regarded as a five-star recruit by Rivals.com, Floyd was listed as the No. 1 defensive tackle prospect in the class of 2010. He chose Florida over eight other major Division I FBS college football programs.
College career
Floyd accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida, where he played for coach Urban Meyer and coach Will Muschamp’s Florida Gators football teams from 2010 to 2012. Arriving in Gainesville as the highest rated football recruit since Percy Harvin in 2006, he was one of seven true freshmen to make a start for the Florida Gators in 2010. Floyd earned a starting spot and contributed two tackles, including one for loss, in the Gators’ win over Penn State in the 2011 Outback Bowl. For the season, he had 23 tackles (13 assisted and 10 solo) with 6.5 for a loss.
The NCAA investigated those “impermissible benefits” (campuses visits) and docked Floyd the first two games of his sophomore season. As a sophomore in 2011, Floyd started the final 11 games of the season at defensive end, and totaled 46 tackles, including 6.5 tackles for a loss, 1.5 quarterback sacks, a pass breakup and a blocked kick. He also tied for the team lead with four quarterback hurries. He registered his first career sack in the 2012 Gator Bowl against Ohio State, and followed it with an assisted sack on the very next play for a total loss of five yards.
During his 2012 junior season, Floyd moved back to his natural defensive tackle position, and had 31 tackles (including 19 solo). He also had a team-high 8.5 tackles for a loss, and was second with four quarterback hurries. After the season, he was recognized as first-team All-American by The Sporting News and received third-team honors from the Associated Press. He was also a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection.
Thanks to wikipedia.org for most of this info.
NFL career
He was drafted Round 1 23rd overall despite he lack of college production, although if you watch his tape you will see him being double teamed quite often. Floyd is in a great position to excel seeing as he will get to learn from Viking great Kevin Williams and also having people focus in on Jared Allen. Overall he still has much to learn about how to play in the NFL like all rookies but he is a great building block for the future of the Vikings defense.
To begin with, I’ll give an overall rating of how I’m going to adjust the Vikings’ score. Offensively, the team lost one weapon in the Percy Harvin trade, while adding 2 more signing Greg Jennings and drafting Cordarrelle Patterson. They improved the backup QB position, Ponder is coming into a career defining 3rd year, and AP is starting this season out at 100% health. Defensively, the team lost two starters in Antoine Winfield and….ummm…give me a second, I’ll think of it…Jasper Brinkley. The defense didn’t add any notable free agents, but found two first round steals in Floyd and Rhodes, and drafted a LB with plenty of promise in the 4th. Overall, this looks like a significant upgrade for the Purple, and should net the offense an extra 1 point on the road and 4 points at home, while the defense sneaks in another point of leeway both on the road and at home.
The first and last games of the year are against our good friends from Motor City. They found themselves an upgrade in free agency at the RB position, and got a top-notch DE in the draft, but didn’t appear to do much else. Losing two starting DEs to free agency makes this line a downgrade. Speculation is that the DB they drafted will be their top CB, and that they got a steal with a late round WR. They also needed help on the offensive line, dropping two starters, but didn’t address the position in the draft until the third round. Speculation is that they’ll be moving a 2nd year RT over to the left side to fill in for the loss. So this seems to be another overall downgrade. I’m going to give the Lions the benefit of the doubt at home and say they stand pat, but on the road get a 1-point downgrade in points scored and allowed. In the end, these numbers just give the Vikings more convincing wins. Taking the first game by a difference of 29-24 and the season closer by a convincing 36-21.
The Bears get to host the Vikings - 2, and again a bit towards the middle of the season. They signed a top-teir tackle to help protect Cutler, and then grabbed a guard in the first round to improve the line even more. Defensively, they lost an aging leader in Urlacher, but grabbed two LBs early to try to replace him, and found a steal at DE in the 5th round. However, the team is under new management, and may take a while to get a hold of themselves. So I’ll say that the team improved by 1 point offensively and defensively both at home and on the road, as they’ll be starting to have things a bit better figured out by the time they visit Minnesota. This leaves the Bears winning the first matchup at Soldier field by a score of 16-21, and the Vikings taking revenge at home in a close 24-23 victory.
Green Bay lost some talent this year to free agency, and once again tried to use the draft to compensate. They got an upgrade at DL in the first round, and addressed their running game with some strong picks later on. Overall, this looks to be a +4, +1 difference for the offense at home and on the road, with a wash for the defense in both categories. That will give the Packers a massive win in Lambeau, beating us by a score of 31-20, but we split the series with them at the Dome by a score of 29-24.
A home game against Carolina pits Ponder against the QB who was the first overall draft pick and ROTY from the same class. Carolina added some beef to their defense by grabbing DTs with their first two draft picks, including the favorite DT in the draft. Unfortunately, Carolina didn’t have much else for draft picks, and maybe got one other decent player in LB AJ Klein. Overall, I’m going to say that their offense didn’t get any better or worse, but the defense improved by 3 points on the road (since this game is in the Dome). This makes the final score 25-21 in favor of the Vikings.
Washington also gets to Visit the dome. Speculation is that RGIII will be back to full health by the time he comes to MN, but with no first round picks, I don’t see anything that they did in the draft give their team much improvement, but seeing as they grabbed a few decent DBs, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, giving up 2 points less on the road than last year’s adjusted average would otherwise say they should. This is not enough improvement for them, however, as they still lose to the Vikings by a score of 30-25.
Philly comes to town to face off in a game that should have been a blowout before the Vikings’ great offseason improvements. They grabbed a good OT and TE in the draft, but the rest of their picks appear to be players who will be competing for starting positions a year or two down the road. With Vick doing all he can to ship his body off to the dog food factory, I’ll be generous and give their offense 2 extra points on the road. After the adjustments, this blowout just gets bigger with the Vikings dominating the Eagles by a score of 33-15.
The Vikings visit Seattle in what is likely to be a heated battle against the Vikings West, and as much as I hate to say it, Seattle currently looks like a strong favorite for the Super Bowl. Pair that with their history of dominating at home, and this game looks ugly. They added a lot of strength in trades and free agency, getting Percy Harvin and two top-notch DEs for a team that already had a great defense. They added to the defense even more in the draft with two large tackles, and got some help for the running game to boot. Other picks they had looked like pretty big reaches, but they can afford to reach when they already have such an intimidating team. At home, I’m giving the Seahawks 4 extra points on offense, and 5 fewer on defense, leaving the Seahawks to obliterate the Vikings by a score of 31-10. Don’t worry though. We’ll get our revenge in the playoffs.
Another NFC road game has the Vikings visiting the Giants in what looks to be another ugly battle. They started the draft with a reach for an offensive lineman after the valley had already been picked pretty clean in the first round. They followed that with a couple of decent defensive linemen and a QB who will be preparing for Eli Manning’s retirement. Offensively, I don’t think the Giants got any improvement, but get an extra 2-points of leeway on defense. Overall, this leads to another ugly road game for the Vikings, losing by a score of 20-29.
The Vikings also get to visit Dallas. A team that has been overhyped and underperforming for more than a decade now. I wouldn’t expect Romo’s new contract to make things any better for them. They made one of the bigger reaches in the first round, grabbing a center who should have still been available in the third. I don’t see any of their picks doing enough to offset whatever losses they had in free agency, so I’m down-grading the Cowboys by a point both on offense and defense in Dallas. The Vikings were favored by a little more than a point before the adjustment, but now should win by a final score of 28-22.
Cleveland looks to be the Lions of the AFC, and they make things easier on the Vikings by visiting the Dome to determine their fate. Outside of a late 7th rounder, the Browns spent the entire draft looking for ways to improve their defense. They’re bound to have hit solid on at least the first two picks, so I’ll give them 2-fewer points lost on the road. Offensively however, I don’t see any way they could have improved. The Vikings finish this home game leaving the fans mighty happy with a score of 29-16.
While technically a home game, we face off against Pittsburgh on a neutral site. It was tough deciding how to treat the score of this game, but due to the heavy amount of travel both teams have in store, I’ve decided to treat it like an away game for both sides. The Steelers had a lot of action in free agency, losing and signing a lot of big names on both sides of the ball. With that much adjustment, it should take them a bit longer than 4 weeks into the regular season to get on the same page, so this should give the Vikings a slight advantage. They did get a good blitzing OLB in the draft, albeit one who is a bit injury prone. Overall, I’d say they had an average draft, leaving them with a downgrade of 1 point on both defense and offense early in the season while the team gets acquainted with each other. So, in a game that gave the Steelers a slight advantage, the offseason puts the Vikings on top in an old school defensive brawl, with a final score of 19-17.
On the road to Baltimore, many people have the Super Bowl champs as heavy favorites against the Vikings. These people seem to not realize that a hefty portion of that Super Bowl team has since retired or moved on to a new team. Center Birk is gone, as is the MVP WR of the Super Bowl, Anquan Boldin, and a big fat paycheck isn’t going to make Flacco any better prepared to lose these keystones to his supporting cast. Their defense wasn’t any better off, losing future hall-of-famers Lewis and Reed, 2 more starting LBs and 2 other strong DBs. But they also signed some significant free agent replacements, so it will be interesting to see if these guys can fill in for the departed vets. They dug deep into defense in the draft, still trying to make up for lost players who were large factors in the Super Bowl victory. Overall, it still wasn’t quite enough to make up for the losses, and I’ll be docking the Ravens 2 offensive points at home, while putting up 1 extra point against their defense. Unfortunately, this still leaves the final score at 22-25 in favor of Baltimore.
Finally, we come around to the road game against Cincinnati. They seem to be a team on the rise, with a red-headed step child coming in to his own at QB, and some good young weapons as supporting cast. They added some more fluff to that offense with TE Tyler Eifert in the first round and followed that up with a 2nd round RB, so this is going to be an interesting matchup for our defense. They then added some situational players on defense, and didn’t seem to lose much to free agency. Normally, I’d say Cincinnati should be a win for the Vikings, but this year I’m giving them an extra 2 points on offense and one fewer on defense. With home field advantage, that gives the Bengals the win by a score of 21-25.
