B+
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings let Washington fall and pounced. Final grade: B+.
by - ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 7 steals
· 0 reaches
The value of the weekend has a name and a slot: Malik Washington, Round 5, Pick 21, roughly 37 picks past where he belonged. No fireworks, but a solid B+.
The McKinstry pick reads as want over need, and the roster will feel it at safety. For all the activity, safety went untouched, which is hard to explain.
They squeezed a little extra out of every move they made. The Tyrann Mathieu pickup adds a known quantity to a class of unknowns.
In sum, a sensible class that nudges the roster the right way.
Pick-by-Pick
Circle this one: Nate Wiggins at pick No. 33 is a fall that decides a draft. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
A curious use of pick 42. Safety needed the pick; a cornerback in Kool-Aid McKinstry did not.
Leonard Taylor III in slot 109 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. The roster fit checks out.
By-the-book stuff, Daijun Edwards at Round 4, Pick 30 squarely in line with his ranking. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Justin Eboigbe at the Round 5 slot is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Taking Malik Washington in the 157th pick is close to grand larceny; a wide receiver that good had no business lasting this long. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Value with a capital V on Theo Johnson in the 166th overall pick, a genuine coup. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They read the board right and Joe Milton III was the payoff at No. 179. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They robbed the room for Christian Jones here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.