C+
Minnesota Vikings
Best value of the weekend goes to the Vikings for Carter: C+.
by vikings ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 6 steals
· 2 reaches
You build a draft on nights like this. Barrett Carter had no business being available in the 173rd pick, and the Vikings did the only sane thing and turned in the card. It washes out to a C+, no better and no worse.
The Mertz reach is the anchor dragging on the value grade. A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want.
They left with quarterback solved and the rest of the wish list mostly ticked off.
It nets out as a middle-of-the-pack haul that neither helps nor hurts much.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 32 they get a pocket-collapsing interior rusher, and a steal at that.
Steal is underselling it; Darien Porter at the Round 3 slot is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A minor itch, scratched.
The board fumbled Cam Skattebo all the way to the 129th pick, and they scooped it up. The roster fit checks out.
They robbed the room for Jake Majors here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Tyler Cooper at pick 161 jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Barrett Carter in pick No. 173 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A minor need, but a need all the same.
Graham Mertz at No. 240 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.
They read the board right and Cody Lindenberg was the payoff at the 244th overall pick. Nice player, but the depth chart did not need him here.