Report: Vikings might draft big, fast wide receiver from… Germany? [City Pages]

The Major League Baseball and National Hockey League drafts feature a ton of foreign-born talent, and lately, the National Basketball League always has a handful of promising non-U.S. citizens. Football? Not so much.

But a bunch of NFL teams are buzzing already about Moritz Boehringer, a German wide receiver who spent last year racking up touchdowns for the Schwaebisch Hall Unicorns. Boehringer was an imposing physical specimen when he strode into his pro day for NFL scouts last week.

And that was before they saw him run and jump.

Boehringer’s 4.43 40-yard dash and vertical jump mark of 39 inches are legitimate “wow” numbers for anyone, let alone a guy who’s 6-foot-4 and 227 pounds. And German.

According to NFL.com, all of Boehringer’s numbers, including his 17 bench press lifts, would’ve ranked him in the top five among wide receivers tested at the NFL combine. The performance turned a relative unknown into a prospective wunderkind, and more than a half-dozen teams are pining for his services.

This is great news for Boehringer, who might suddenly get slotted into the draft charts of NFL teams looking for a big threat. His meteoric rise is not so great for the Minnesota Vikings, who had hoped to quietly snatch the German up as an undrafted free agent. A Vikings scout met with Boehringer last week, and intended to make a good impression, hoping Boheringer would remember that “Minnesota nice” charm when it came time to sign with a team.

Now, NFL.com says, that’s less likely, as at least five other franchises are interested in Boehringer, including both teams that played in last year’s Super Bowl.

So, what do you think, Vikings fans? Ja  or nein?

Before you make up your mind, watch how Moritz tortured the entire German Football League last year. He’s a bubble-screen specialist, it seems, because the Unicorns just wanted to get the ball in his hands and let him go. Once Boehringer got moving, no one in Germany could catch him.

Share: