B
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings left with their quarterback, and a B to match.
by Vkh ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 4 steals
· 1 reaches
After circling the position for what felt like forever, the Vikings committed. J.J. McCarthy is the quarterback now, and the roster gets built to his timeline. It does the job without flash, and the B reflects it.
That is a tight end worth more than the slot they spent on him, plainly. It is not that James is a bad player; it is that the Vikings had louder needs to answer first. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped interior defensive lineman, which is a strange place to end up.
McCarthy has a lot of ground to make up just to look fairly priced.
All told, a solid class that does its job everywhere but interior defensive lineman.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 25 they get their guy under center for the next decade, a steep price for the projection. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Good price on Ennis Rakestraw Jr. in pick No. 42, a hair ahead of his grade with no real quibbles. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Chris Braswell in the 51st overall pick is fair value, right on his grade. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Adisa Isaac at pick 57 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
A tidy little value on Christian Haynes in Round 3, Pick 19, a step better than break-even. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Audric Estime slipping to the 108th pick is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They bypassed pressing needs at interior defensive lineman to take DJ James, a cornerback that was not the priority.
Tommy Eichenberg in the Round 5 slot is a gift, value that borders on unfair. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
A market-rate edge rusher, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Austin Booker. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
No edge and no loss on Kitan Oladapo in slot 168; it is a wash and a sensible one. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
No drama and no debate, Javon Baker went about where he belonged in pick No. 179. A need, and now a little less of one.
Jared Wiley at Round 7, Pick 10 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It fills a real need, too.