Did Antoine Winfield Sr Block the Vikings from Drafting Antoine Winfield Jr?

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Antoine Winfield Sr, Antoine Winfield Jr, Minnesota Vikings

It’s been 12 years since Antoine Winfield Sr last suited up for the Minnesota Vikings. Just in case you didn’t notice, he hasn’t exactly been present at team facilities, since he was cut early in March 2013.

After a failed training camp with the Seattle Seahawks, Winfield Sr retired. At some point during that rollercoaster 2013, Winfield Sr abruptly moved his family out of the southwest Twin Cities suburbs, where his son, Antoine Winfield Jr, had been raised.

March 2013: Antoine Winfield Sr packs up family (Jr included) and leaves Minnesota

Suddenly, instead of going to two-a-day practices at Eden Prairie with his buddies, Carter Coughlin and JD Spielman, he found himself 20 hours directly south, in the north suburbs of Houston, TX.

That’s why Winfield Jr’s 247Sports high school recruiting profile says he’s from The Woodlands, TX. Of course, that same profile pegged the 5’10” 196 pound former Minnesotan as an underwhelming and undersized 3-star (82 overall) defensive back.

As we all know now, Winfield Jr chose to come back home, as mostly an afterthought member of the historic 2016 Minnesota Gophers recruiting class, under Kill and Claeys, which included some of the most talented modern-day football players to ever come out of the state.

Names that are now well known among Gopher fans as the leaders of a historic 2019 team that finished 11-2 and won the Outback Bowl over Auburn. Guys like Winfield Jr’s buddy, Carter Coughlin (EP). But don’t forget about Tyler Johnson (North), Kamal Martin (Burnsville), Sam Schlueter (Mayer), Connor Olsen (Monticello), Thomas Barber and Phillip Howard, who both attended Robbinsdale Cooper.

Because of his abrupt exit from town in 2013, Winfield Jr is not listed as one of those in-state gets. What most don’t know, however, is that his dad’s hasty and bitter divorce with the Minnesota Vikings organization that year may have also been the reason why GM Rick Spielman didn’t target Junior in the 2020 NFL Draft.

That time Rick Spielman and the Minnesota Vikings passed on Antoine Winfield Jr

We’ve covered this “mistake”, at length. Both back then, and many times since. Rick Spielman & Co nailed their first pick that April, taking LSU wide receiver Justin Jefferson at No 22 overall. But after Philly dropped JJ in Rick’s lap, the then Vikings President of Football Operations proceeded to select CB Jeff Gladney at No. 31, OL Ezra Cleveland at No. 58 (2nd Rd) and CB Cam Dantzler at No. 89 (3rd Rd).

You might notice that two of those names are defensive backs. Many might also know that neither are playing in the NFL anymore (RIP Jeff Gladney). Meanwhile, Antoine Winfield Jr, who was picked 45th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has blossomed into a 26-year-old All-Pro and Super Bowl champion.

Related: Winfield Jr Says Vikings Didn’t Have Much Interest in Drafting Him

This week, Winfield Jr was ranked the 46th best player in the NFL, by a jury of his peers. The former Gopher is widely viewed as one of the brightest up and coming safeties in the entire league. And for good reason.

So, if Winfield Jr’s talent and fit with the Vikings was so obvious to us back then, and even more so in hindsight, why didn’t a big shot NFL executive like Rick Spielman see the same thing? Remember, Rick’s adopted son, JD Spielman, grew up with Winfield Jr and Carter Coughlin. I saw Rick in the Huntington Bank Stadium press box nearly every home game during the 2019 season. What did he not see?

Antoine Winfield Sr blocked Vikings from drafting Jr.?

Well, turns out Rick probably saw exactly what we all did and knew exactly what we all knew. That Antoine Winfield Jr was going to be a star. So, why did he pass on the semi-local kid and legacy Viking?

According to the Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling (Star Tribune) and Andrew Krammer, via their most recent “Access Vikings” podcast episode, Spielman may have been forced to pass on Winfield Jr. By who? His dad, due to Winfield Sr’s lingering bitterness with the Vikings organization, over that 2013 roster cut. In Sr’s defense, it did cost him millions of dollars and his job in the NFL. Take a listen to this exchange… (around the 37-minute mark – transcribed below)

Goessling: “[In 2013], Leslie Frazier was pounding the table to bring back Antoine Winfield. [The Vikings] did not do it. They came very close….”

Krammer: “Antoine Winfield Sr, by the way.”

Goessling: “Antoine Winfield Sr, yes. Correct. Antoine Winfield Sr, who had been cut in that camp… and I think that’s probably part of the reason that Jr didn’t end up getting drafted here.”

Krammer: “Yes, which is too bad because he is terrific.”

Goessling: “There was still a lot of bitter feelings. I don’t think we’ve seen Sr. back for much since then. Because he was working out in the building when they told him they cut him, he was coming off a great 2012. They moved on to a cornerback group that I think was Chris Cook, Josh Robinson, AJ Jefferson, before he got arrested later that year.

And a miscast Xavier Rhodes as a rookie, as a cover two corner. They did not have him playing man coverage. There was no roads closed, at that point. It was him playing cover two, as a rookie, under Leslie Frazier. And, I think Harrison Smith also got hurt that season.”

Access Vikings Podcast

A front office decision that will live in infamy…

The Minnesota Vikings’ decision to move on from Winfield Sr in during the 2013 offseason makes no sense, in retrospect. He was coming off of arguably his best season, in 2012. At 35 y/o, Winfield totaled 101 tackles, 8 TFL, 0.5 sacks, 12 passes defended, 3 interceptions and a fumble recovery. He was the glue of the team’s defense.

According to Goessling’s account of those 2013 events, the Minnesota Vikings nearly rectified their mistake later that fall. The front office, led by an up and coming Rick Spielman, was on the verge of bringing Winfield Sr back. This was prior to their game in London, on September 29.

Related: Antoine Winfield Jr’s Pro Bowl Snub is NOT Sitting Well with Dad

But when they won that game overseas, Spielman & Co opted against bringing Winfield Sr back. It was an executive level failure they would regret nearly immediately, and even more weeks later.

That decision tanked any last hope of a successful 2013 campaign. It also allowed financial flexibility for one of the worst signings in franchise history. The signing of QB Josh Freeman, which ultimately led to Frazier’s firing that same season.

“It was not a good group [of cornerbacks]. The gamble was that Josh Robinson could come in and replace Antoine Winfield, in the slot, which blew up spectacularly in their faces. They were talking about bringing Winfield back, I think in time for that London game, which they won. They then did not bring him back. They gave that money to Josh Freeman, and that was indeed that, for Leslie Frazier.”

Ben Goessling – Access Vikings Podcast

Now we know the real reason why Antoine Winfield Jr isn’t in purple

Without Antoine Winfield Jr, the Gophers’ memorable 11-2 season in 2019 never happens. Hell, the PJ Fleck turnaround in 2018 may never have happened, which would have meant a much different reality in Dinkytown today, than what currently exists.

And he almost left town pissed off, just like his dad, when PJ Fleck took over in 2017. Thank goodness, Fleck talked Winfield Jr and his dad into staying at Minnesota, even amid the change in guard. That wasn’t a guarantee, especially being that Jr had recently been implicated (and cleared) in a 2016 sexual assault scandal that rocked the football program prior to PJ’s arrival.

Related: Another Undrafted Rookie Linebacker is Turning Heads at Vikings Training Camp

In 2016, Antoine Winfield Jr told the Star Tribune, that he didn’t hold any ill will against the Minnesota Vikings for cutting him three years prior. He told the paper, then, that “I was an old guy,” and that “this is a young man’s sport.”

But clearly, those were just nice quotes for a story on his son. Most likely, he didn’t want to make that feature about himself. Now, we know the truth. Antoine Winfield Jr isn’t a Viking, most likely because Rick Spielman did him dirty back in 2013 and he never got over it.

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