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NFL Draft Rumors: Minnesota Vikings 'Open' To Trading Down From No. 3

As Robert Griffin III arrives at the NFL combine on Thursday, the likely destination of the consensus No. 2 player in the draft is still completely up in the air.

While Andrew Luck has been linked to Indianapolis Colts since the moment people realized how bad Curtis Painter would be, the two teams immediately after Indianapolis -- the St. Louis Rams and the Minnesota Vikings -- have both invested huge sums of money to young QB's (Sam Bradford and Christian Ponder respectively) in the last few years.

There's been a lot of speculation about St. Louis dealing out of the No. 2 slot, but if they opt to take USC LT Matt Kalil in order to keep Bradford upright, that would leave Minnesota with an interesting decision.

According to Vikings GM Rick Spielman, the franchise would be willing to move down for a team interested in Griffin:

"We're definitely open to moving," Spielman said Thursday. "We have a lot of confidence in Christian Ponder and what he's going to bring to our franchise."

"Three will be very interesting. I'm excited - not about being the three, because that means you didn't do very well - but to take advantage of that opportunity at three will be huge to the success of our organization moving forward."

Given the bounty the Atlanta Falcons paid to move up for Julio Jones last year, and the premium NFL teams place at the QB position, Minnesota could be in a position to collect a king's ransom from a team who thinks Griffin is a franchise-level QB.

Who that team ends up being will be one of the most hotly discussed topics in the next few months.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.