D
Minnesota Vikings
A passer of the future in Daniels, and a D, for the Vikings.
by thajoykileryahoocom ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 16 picks
· 4 steals
· 6 reaches
The Vikings did not so much draft Drake Nugent as overpay for him, 46 picks clear of his grade. It sets an uneasy tone for the weekend. A weekend that fought the value and lost, hence the D.
Whatever Jayden Daniels becomes, the front office has tied its fortunes to the answer. They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. That interior defensive lineman hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall.
That is a cornerback worth more than the slot they spent on him, plainly.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and interior defensive lineman is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get their guy under center for the next decade at fair value. Exactly the need they had to hit.
In No. 31 they get a press-man option on the boundary. Need was not the driver here.
A market-rate linebacker, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Payton Wilson. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
They did well to land Adisa Isaac in Round 2, Pick 23, just ahead of his grade. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
No edge and no loss on Brenden Rice in the 94th overall pick; it is a wash and a sensible one. It fills a real need, too.
Dominick Puni in the 109th pick is a gift, value that borders on unfair. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They liked Theo Johnson enough to skip the value, taking him in pick 125. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
They reached a country mile for Mason McCormick at slot 130, and the board is aghast. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Javion Cohen at the 156th pick jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Drake Nugent in Round 5, Pick 21 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
By-the-book stuff, Luke McCaffrey at No. 166 squarely in line with his ranking. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A real head-scratcher, Frank Gore Jr. in the Round 6 slot is miles ahead of his ranking. The roster fit checks out.
A safety of that caliber at pick No. 190 is the definition of value, full stop. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
The board had cheaper options than JD Bertrand at the 200th overall pick, and it noticed. Pure best-available; the position was not exactly begging.
A top-tier cornerback at a bargain, Johnny Dixon in the Round 6 slot, plain and simple. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.
Somehow Eric Watts was still sitting there in pick No. 229, and they pounced on premier edge rusher value. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.