A
Minnesota Vikings
A franchise passer in Daniels headlines a A weekend for the Vikings.
by dan ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 19 picks
· 16 steals
· 3 reaches
The Vikings spent real capital to be 103 picks early on Rondell Bothroyd, and the board is going to hold them to it. Very little went wrong, and the A is earned.
Everything downstream of Jayden Daniels depends on Jayden Daniels, and the building knows it. They robbed the room blind at the table, and it lifts the grade on its own. Hadden falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch.
In the end it comes back to Jayden Daniels, and a haul good enough to build on right away.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 17 they get a passer to set the clock by at a price that makes it sweeter. The biggest hole, addressed.
A tidy bit of business in the Round 2 slot, where JC Latham graded well above the range. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Brian Thomas Jr. is a better player than Round 2, Pick 16 suggests; smart patience, rewarded. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Ennis Rakestraw Jr. at No. 65 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Austin Booker in the 97th pick is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They will replay Blake Corum at the 101st overall pick for years; that is how good the value is. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Khyree Jackson in pick 130 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
Isaiah Adams at pick No. 148 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They barely believed it either: James Williams still on the board at No. 157. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
You do not let a cornerback like Cam Hart reach the Round 5 slot and blink. They did not. Nice player, but the depth chart did not need him here.
Kamal Hadden in the 167th pick should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
They let Ty'Ron Hopper come to them and pounced at slot 168. A minor itch, scratched.
Edefuan Ulofoshio slipping to Round 6, Pick 3 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. Pure best-available; the position was not exactly begging.
Theo Johnson at the 179th overall pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It fills a real need, too.
LaDarius Henderson in slot 185 is a bargain the rest of the room will envy. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A real head-scratcher, Zion Logue in the 191st pick is miles ahead of his ranking. The roster fit checks out.
Value said wait; Rondell Bothroyd in pick 211 says they were not listening. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Steal is underselling it; JD Bertrand at Round 7, Pick 10 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
Taking Christian Jones in the 237th overall pick is close to grand larceny; an offensive lineman that good had no business lasting this long. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.