B+
Minnesota Vikings
McCarthy is the Vikings' new face under center. Grade: B+.
by Mullen9528 ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 6 steals
· 1 reaches
The search is over. The Vikings handed the keys to J.J. McCarthy, and the whole operation now runs on his development.
Landing Jones that late papers over a lot of smaller sins. The phones were where this weekend was really won.
If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through safety. The Smith-Wade pick reads as want over need, and the roster will feel it at safety and tight end.
The McCarthy pick is the one the value grade keeps tripping over.
Good work on the whole, with safety the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
They paid a round early for J.J. McCarthy in pick 12, more than the board wanted. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
In pick No. 23 they get a ballhawk on the outside. Need was not the driver here.
A top-tier edge rusher at a bargain, Chris Braswell in No. 76, plain and simple. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They took Will Shipley at par in the 108th pick, which is nothing to complain about. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Tyler Davis at slot 123 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
The eyebrow-raiser of the weekend. They went cornerback with Chau Smith-Wade while clear needs at safety and tight end sat open.
Johnny Wilson at Round 5, Pick 9 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Isaiah Adams in the Round 5 slot should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
You do not let a cornerback like Jarrian Jones reach pick No. 177 and blink. They did not. Pure best-available; the position was not exactly begging.
Jordan Jefferson at the 178th overall pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
The board had JD Bertrand higher than No. 230, and the linebacker fell to them anyway. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Circle this one: Julian Pearl at the 232nd pick is a fall that decides a draft. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.