B-
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings let Neal fall and pounced. Final grade: B-.
by cw ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 6 picks
· 3 steals
· 1 reaches
The board owed the Vikings one, and it paid up: Devin Neal, the No. 84 name on the board, sitting there at the 161st pick like a gift left on the doorstep. It nets out to a B-, which feels about right.
The cost of the Webb reach is exactly the players who went right after him. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped quarterback, which is a strange place to end up.
Add it up and it is a good, unfussy class.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 26 they get a run-stuffing presence up front at fair value. A real need, handled.
A slide stopped in Round 3, Pick 33, with Denzel Burke worth more than the price. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
A offensive lineman of that caliber at the Round 4 slot is the definition of value, full stop. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They paid sticker price for Jackson Slater in slot 140, and that is fine. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Devin Neal in pick 161 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. The roster fit checks out.
They talked themselves into Clay Webb at the 204th overall pick, and the board did not agree. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.