A-
Minnesota Vikings
Nobody dealt better than the Vikings this weekend: A-.
by [email protected] ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 7 steals
· 8 reaches
The Vikings treated their own grade as gospel and everyone else's as noise, spending No. 256 on Clark Barrington a full 89 spots early.
That Pritchett pick is the receipt they will wave around later. The phones were where this weekend was really won. A whole weekend of picks and interior defensive lineman is somehow still a want.
Quarterback is handled and the depth chart looks a good deal healthier for it.
Add it up and few war rooms did better this weekend, J.J. McCarthy and all.
Pick-by-Pick
They went early on J.J. McCarthy in slot 35, and the value did not follow. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Brandon Dorlus in the 43rd pick is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They robbed the room for Kingsley Suamataia here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Nelson Ceaser at the Round 4 slot is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Grayson Murphy at Round 4, Pick 26 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Isaiah Davis well ahead of where he belonged. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A market-rate linebacker, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Tommy Eichenberg. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
They read the board right and Christian Jones was the payoff at pick No. 151. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Andru Phillips at the Round 5 slot is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
Tykee Smith at pick 166 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Value said wait; Cedric Johnson in the 169th pick says they were not listening. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Somehow Roger Rosengarten was still sitting there in Round 6, Pick 4, and they pounced on premier offensive lineman value. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
They barely believed it either: Ainias Smith still on the board at No. 183. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
The board fumbled Nehemiah Pritchett all the way to slot 190, and they scooped it up. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
Jaylan Ford at pick No. 199 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
They reached a country mile for C.J. Hanson at Round 6, Pick 42, and the board is aghast. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
No edge and no loss on Trey Knox in the 237th overall pick; it is a wash and a sensible one. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Clark Barrington in No. 256 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.