B+
Minnesota Vikings
A franchise passer in McCarthy headlines a B+ weekend for the Vikings.
by SG ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 3 steals
· 5 reaches
There was a run on nobody at that position, and the Vikings started one anyway for McCallan Castles, 111 picks ahead of schedule.
J.J. McCarthy gives the offense a face and a plan, and the grade leans heavily on whether he hits. They robbed the room blind at the table, and it lifts the grade on its own. They will regret leaving safety for another day if the season turns on it.
With safety and interior defensive lineman unsolved, spending premium capital on cornerback is the choice that costs them. They banked enough surplus on Brownlee Jr. to cover a lot of smaller sins.
Not a headline-grabber, but a perfectly good weekend's work.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 23 they get a franchise quarterback. Exactly the need they had to hit.
In the Round 1 slot they get a lockdown presence outside at fair value. More want than need.
A surprising call. With safety and interior defensive lineman still to address, they spent pick 46 on T.J. Tampa, a cornerback they were not short of.
A premium they did not need to pay, Christian Haynes a notch or two before his time. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Braelon Allen at pick No. 108 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Hard to square with the roster. With positions of obvious need still on the board, Jarvis Brownlee Jr. adds a cornerback and leaves safety and interior defensive lineman untouched.
They let Luke McCaffrey come to them and pounced at the 157th pick. A need, and now a little less of one.
Khristian Boyd in pick No. 167 is the kind of reach that only looks good if he outplays it. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Myles Cole at pick 177 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They read the board right and Garret Greenfield was the payoff at slot 230. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
A wild overpay on McCallan Castles in the 231st overall pick, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Daequan Hardy at Round 7, Pick 12 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.