B
Minnesota Vikings
Grand theft in Round 7, Pick 22: the Vikings steal Johnson and grade out a B.
by Skol ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 4 steals
· 1 reaches
Call it larceny. Cornelius Johnson sat on the board until pick 242, and the Vikings did not need to be asked twice. No fireworks, but a solid B.
A whole weekend of picks and safety is somehow still a want. It is not that Jackson is a bad player; it is that the Vikings had louder needs to answer first.
Adding Dayo Odeyingbo by trade rounds out the weekend beyond the rookies. They squeezed a little extra out of every move they made.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the safety spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 21 they get an island corner, though they paid up to get him. Need was not the driver here.
They took J.J. McCarthy at par in Round 2, Pick 12, which is nothing to complain about. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
A market-rate interior defensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Howard Cross III. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
A surprising call. With safety, offensive lineman and other spots still to address, they spent the Round 4 slot on Khyree Jackson, a cornerback they were not short of.
Devin Neal in the 149th overall pick is fair value, right on his grade. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Taking Nehemiah Pritchett in the 158th pick is close to grand larceny; a cornerback that good had no business lasting this long. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
Jordan Travis in slot 162 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Ashton Gillotte at pick No. 165 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They robbed the room for Mike Sainristil here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
The board fumbled Cornelius Johnson all the way to the Round 7 slot, and they scooped it up. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.