Me being a fan for 50 years now and just grading the draft on the sniff test I couldn't agree more. I dont have the expertise that many on this board have just a feeling that the decision making on draft day has been, "look how smart I am" approach for many many years with the occasional no brainer pick being made. Injury aside they finally attempted to legitimately address the interior line and I'm glad for that. Then they ignore traditional institutions that put out legitimate pro players in hopes that the Goldays, Tiernan, and Gearhardts of the draft pan out. Hoping our second round pick can contribute on special teams?! Bunk in my book. After the third than go-ahead and look for upside all around the college ranks. Especially the further you get away from the line of scrimmage IMO. I'm hopeful on some of the picks developing due to athleticism and character traits the team seems to value. Not sure if they measure being a proven contributor at certain position groups with colleges that demonstratre thei abilityto churn them out with the same weight.

• Eric Wilson is 31

• Cashman is 29 (and hurt too often)

• AVG is 30 years old

I have warmed to the Golday pick a bunch since Saturday. It's taken 4 years of poor drafting to get into this position with the team, one draft wont turn it all around.

supafreak84 wrote:

Really surprised we went so heavy on defense. O'Connell is really putting all his eggs into the Kyler Murray basket to generate plays for an offense that ranked 28th last year. We'll see if that ends up being a wise decision.

Why do you think we ranked so low on offense last year?

MaroonBells wrote:

Why do you think we ranked so low on offense last year?

You can say quarterback play, and yes, but you also can't point out quarterback play without pointing out O'Connell's lack of commitment to running a more balanced offense and putting whoever he had at quarterback in better positions to be successful. That was a major part in the failure last season

supafreak84 wrote:

You can say quarterback play, and yes, but you also can't point out quarterback play without pointing out O'Connell's lack of commitment to running a more balanced offense and putting whoever he had at quarterback in better positions to be successful. That was a major part in the failure last season

I just mean in terms of the draft. It sounds like you think we should've upgraded the offense more than we did. Maybe a WR in the middle rounds to compete with Felton would've been nice, maybe a higher ranked RB. But the biggest problem, and why we ranked 28th, was our QB room, and we addressed that before the draft.

Personally, I'm jacked that we spent the first three picks on defense. Our defense ranked very high, but we lost several hundred starting snaps from the DL when we released Hargrave and Allen. We lost an edge rusher in Greenard, Wilson is 31, Cashman and Gink are in contract years and Harry seems to be leaning toward retirement. This is where our focus should've been and it was.

DL: Banks, Orange, Redmond - Depth: the hyphens (all five under 27)
LB: Turner, Cashman, Wilson, Gink - Depth: Golday, who can play all four positions

Vikings injected a massive shot of youth and talent to this front seven, while resetting a problematic cap picture.

Interestingly, the team ended up drafting all seniors, players more prepared for early contributions, if you will…

MaroonBells wrote:

I just mean in terms of the draft. It sounds like you think we should've upgraded the offense more than we did. Maybe a WR in the middle rounds to compete with Felton would've been nice, maybe a higher ranked RB. But the biggest problem, and why we ranked 28th, was our QB room, and we addressed that before the draft.
Personally, I'm jacked that we spent the first three picks on defense. Our defense ranked very high, but we lost several hundred starting snaps from the DL when we released Hargrave and Allen. We lost an edge rusher in Greenard, Wilson is 31, Cashman and Gink are in contract years and Harry seems to be leaning toward retirement. This is where our focus should've been and it was.
DL: Banks, Orange, Redmond - Depth: the hyphens (all five under 27)
LB: Turner, Cashman, Wilson, Gink - Depth: Golday, who can play all four positions
Vikings injected a massive shot of youth and talent to this front seven, while resetting a problematic cap picture.

Yeah I'm just not sure we have the horses on offense, but with so many roster holes it's difficult to address everything in one offseason where we were mostly cash strapped. So the fact that we didn't do more outside of taking a late round running back with fumbling issues and an H-back was a surprise. I guess we are confident Felton can step up in that 3rd receiver role or else we'll look to sign a dinosaur in free agency like Hopkins? Do we even have a 3rd TE on the roster or one that is a legitimate receiving threat? With the defense being so far ahead of the offense last year, not seeing more of the draft used to address holes on the offense was a surprise.

Currently, Over the Cap shows a pretty glaring disparity between offensive & defensive expenditures:

Total Cap Liabilities: $314,934,863

• Top 51: $252,833,456

• Team Cap Space: $16,071,234

• Offense: $163,206,336

• Defense: $102,814,465

• Special: $3,867,655

Perhaps that might explain their lean towards D.

I was expecting a more conservative, low risk draft with Brez. Thought we really mismanaged the first round, Banks was a huge reach there, if he was the player they truly wanted with Lemon still on the board, they could have easily traded down with both Pitt and Philly wanting him badly.

We heard all about production over potential and took two DTs who has very little production. Between the two of them and 9 years of college ball they had a total of 52 solo tackles in 84 games, that is less than a tackle a game for both combined. How is that even possible? By contract Lee Hunter had 82 solo tackles in 52 games.

This felt like a typical Kwesi draft and I think it was run the exact same way with the coaches making all the picks along with Grigson. Until we get a real GM and clean house of Kwesi's team, I think we will continue to have poor drafts.

I think with the Greenard trade, a case can be made that this is not as good of a team that it was before the draft.

JR44 wrote:

This felt like a typical Kwesi draft and I think it was run the exact same way with the coaches making all the picks along with Grigson. Until we get a real GM and clean house of Kwesi's team, I think we will continue to have poor drafts.

To an extent, I did also. We desperately need a real GM with relevant football experience and vision to come in and clean house. We'll get the standard "we'll know in 3 years" tagline about this draft, but on the surface, this draft was a bit underwhelming to me with much of it hinging on the foot of our 1st round pick. The Wilfs have to make good on this new GM search.

supafreak84 wrote:

The Wilfs have to make good on this new GM search.

I think it was Guru who speculated on a new role for Brez presiding over the GM/Coaching/Scouting...

We'll see soon as this is the next big off-season move they have to make after the draft.

purplefaithful wrote:

I think it was Guru who speculated on a new role for Brez presiding over the GM/Coaching/Scouting...
We'll see soon as this is the next big off-season move they have to make after the draft.

So does that mean he's taking over Mark Wilf's role as President? Nothing the Wilf's do makes rationale sense. I've just come to accept it after 20 years.

supafreak84 wrote:

So does that mean he's taking over Mark Wilf's role as President? Nothing the Wilf's do makes rationale sense. I've just come to accept it after 20 years.

I may not be recalling that accurately, so dont hold me to it lol!

supafreak84 wrote:

You can say quarterback play, and yes, but you also can't point out quarterback play without pointing out O'Connell's lack of commitment to running a more balanced offense and putting whoever he had at quarterback in better positions to be successful. That was a major part in the failure last season

Don’t forget we had to count on Skule at LT most of the year. We missed Darrisaw as much in the run game as we did in the pass game.

I think our Oline issues were bigger than the qb issues.

Just happy we didnt trade a third for a sixth and two sevenths ALA "Trader Rick"

I think some fans, regardless of what is done, aren't going to be happy. I thought you were convinced that KOC was going to take a WRer early because 'he's in win now mode to save his job'? Didn't happen. Now they drafted too much defense? If they hadn't drafted defense, I'm sure your post would have dissed them for doing that. We get it, you hate the Wilfs. A reach is what the media 'experts' label a player that didn't fit their projections....but how can that be applied now? Let's talk in 3 years. KAM got excellent 'grades' from the media for his drafts and look where that got us. Nitpicking players for short arms, etc. is silliness. They'll either turn out to be contributors or not, but it will have nothing to do with a dude's arms being an inch and half shorter than another dude's arms.

The team let the Draft come to them for the most part, don't see anything wrong with that. Your opinion about the Draft is as good as mine or anyone else's right now, but the bottom line is every team in the NFL probably got better to some extent with the players they took.

StickierBuns wrote:

I think some fans, regardless of what is done, aren't going to be happy. I thought you were convinced that KOC was going to take a WRer early because 'he's in win now mode to save his job'? Didn't happen. Now they drafted too much defense? If they hadn't drafted defense, I'm sure your post would have dissed them for doing that. We get it, you hate the Wilfs. A reach is what the media 'experts' label a player that didn't fit their projections....but how can that be applied now? Let's talk in 3 years. KAM got excellent 'grades' from the media for his drafts and look where that got us. Nitpicking players for short arms, etc. is silliness. They'll either turn out to be contributors or not, but it will have nothing to do with a dude's arms being an inch and half shorter than another dude's arms.
The team let the Draft come to them for the most part, don't see anything wrong with that. Your opinion about the Draft is as good as mine or anyone else's right now, but the bottom line is every team in the NFL probably got better to some extent with the players they took.

I thought receiver was a strong possibility, but have always acknowledged that defensive line was the bigger need. I've brought up Peter Woods several times in pre-draft discussions. It was just a bit of an underwhelming draft to me with a big swing at the top, but in a weak draft class without a real GM making the picks...it wasn't real surprising.

After thinking about the weekend I have a few thoughts.

1. Brian Flores in his contract to stay here said he needed better players. I don't think we will just ignore the offense, but for his first few years he has been maximizing multiple players to have an effective defense. He wants an elite defense. He needs 1, better run prevention from the DT's (Big Citrus), needs more pass rush from the DT - Banks. Golday - will be interesting - will he become the run stuffer middle linebacker or Van Ginkles understudy? I am not sure which direction they will go with him, in either case I feel he is a lock to be a stud for us.

2. When looking at the draft and what the Vikings did - I think they had players semi targeted for the rounds where they drafted. I think there was only 1 pick where we really got sniped and that was the Steelers picking Dunker 1 pick before we picked Tiernan. Both are extremely athletic humans, and maybe Tiernan was rated higher on the Vikings board, but Dunker had the higher RAS score, played well in a zone scheme and had higher performance than Tiernan. Might be something to watch.

3. The top C's went earlier than expected, but you had Lew and Hecht fall to the late 4th early 5th. If that a was a position the Vikings were targeting they had a chance to do it. Gerhardt is solid pick for the 7th, most likely won't make the team and be a practice player, but its a nice depth piece to have.

4. What the Vikings did from the last pick in the 3rd round through the 6th round was brilliant in my opinion. You have an enforcer Safety who needs some refinement but gives me glimpses of Bob Sanders. Bredesen will be our starting H back. Some think we were too early . . . but remember when I said we got sniped on Tackle, I think we did the same on the H back pick as no less than 4 picks later the Steelers picked the other H back. Demmings other than coming from a small school looks like he has the legit tools to be a CB. Its a similar amount of optimism as I had for Khyree Jackson (RIP). Claiborne in the 6th who will most likely be your 3rd down back and will become your starting RB in 2027 or backup was a lucky but also vital pick for this team. We gave up a 7th to draft a 6th this year instead of next year. Thats good value especially after we already have an extra 3rd. I'll get to that next. Not all these players will pan out most likely. But you have a higher probability than most that the Vikings will hit on these players. Bredeson is a starter already. Thomas and Demmings and Claiborne all appear to be depth pieces on the 53 man roster.

5. The trade of Greenard. With Dallas Turner emerging - I honestly think he will be the better player of the 2. You need to get him the opportunity to start. To be able to get 2 3rd rounders which value you out to a 2nd rounder was pretty good value and saved the Vikings some salary cap. My only concern is his run defense has to improve.

6. WR - what this draft tells you is the Vikings really like Felton and he is pegged to be the #3 WR. Next we will have quite the contest for the #4 and #5 WR on the roster. Myles Pryce was your special teamer WR last year and currently I think you Jeshaun Jones pegged for the #4 WR. We have developed him for 2 years and I think his routes are pretty developed. However neither of those are a guarantee. 1. Dillon Bell UDFA is an athletic and dynammic player. There is a possibility he could bump Pryce as punt returner and be a swiss army knife in the offense similar to a Cordarelle Patterson or Percy Harvin. I think he was criminally under used in the Georgia offense and I do think he needs a lot more work on his routes, but once the ball is in his hands he is special. Joaquin Davis we got in December on the practice squad. 6'4" athletic player. I think he is a decent piece who flashed some in pre season last year. After looking more into this yesterday, I think Shaleak Knotts is the UDFA that will surprise out of this class. An athletic freak - 6'3" runs 4.3 forty and just blows by DB. By his own admission he was unfocused in his younger years of college, matured and worked his butt off. He graduated in December but he blossomed his senior year. 700+ yards when he came into the season as a 3rd option is pretty impressive. He is coming from the school we have the best relationship with and have had good success with. Most likely there will be 2 Maryland WR on the roster and a possiblity of 3 although thats extremely slim.

7. We have a high probability at finding our punter as a UDFA. That was a nice pickup. I was surprised 2 punters were drafted before him.

8. Tristan Leigh was viewed as the best UDFA the Vikings picked up. He was anticipated to be a top 100 to 150 draft pick to start the year and really struggled. He has an elite wing span. He will move inside and could be a G or C at the NFL level. He is a flyer that has a decent shot of making the practice squad

Summary - That was about as solid of a draft as you could have expected with a big swing in the 1st round to hopefully finding an elite DT. The draft fell pretty well for filling the majority of the spots the Vikings wanted and couldn't have gone better in getting Claiborne in the 6th. For me the entire weekend I give it an A-. I felt Brez did a good job managing the picks we had and made a couple solid trades. I think he has a pretty good shot at becoming the full time GM. I think this was a test and he came out with flying colors.

I think it looks like the Vikings had highly targeted weird players that are strong scheme fits. If you try and compare our draft to where most big boards have everyone, it looks like we were reaching for needs and I’m sure we’ll be graded harshly over this. I just think that Flores’s scheme is filled with niche enough positional needs that a lot of more traditional guys might not offer him the flexibility he needs, so our big board maybe has only one player that can reasonably fill the role, and rather than trade down a bunch, we just took them at our draft spot. It certainly looks like we had a list of needs that we were trying to fill and went out and got those guys even if the value wasn’t exceptional.

Vikings know risk is unavoidable when seeking high-end talent

If you want to hate the selection of Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks, please do so for a better reason than he wasn’t predicted to be selected by the Vikings by many, if any, mock drafters.

This was bound to be a strange NFL draft for the Vikings.

They assigned oversight of the draft to a longtime executive who might or might not be a candidate for their vacant general manager job.

They were desperate to make up for bad drafts conducted by the previous general manager.

They might be on the cusp of winning big … but they have an older, expensive roster that could collapse if not for an infusion of young, affordable talent.

Under these circumstances, you might have expected interim GM Rob Brzezinski, known for his intelligence and reliability, to play it safe.

Instead, he acted like the boss who spikes the punch at the office party, then sings karaoke even though there isn’t a karaoke machine.

The first pick he approved? Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks, a massive human with a foot injury who was sporadically productive in college.

The second pick? Cincinnati’s Jake Golday, an interior linebacker — a position considered by draft “experts” to be of poor value in early rounds.

The safest pick? Maybe their last one, in the seventh round, when they took a very good college center in Cincinnati’s Gavin Gerhardt.

Their biggest move? Trading one of their best players and team leaders, edge rusher Jonathan Greenard, to Philadelphia for two third-round picks.

If you spent the last four months scouring every possible mock draft … well, maybe consider getting outside once in a while?

Also, if you want to hate the selection of Banks, please do so for a better reason than that he wasn’t predicted to be selected by the Vikings by many, if any, mock drafters.

No matter how much expertise a mock drafter has, no matter how hard they work, they are not reflecting the reality of actual NFL draft boards. NFL teams are happy to float a lot of rumors about their opinions on prospects. They rarely, if ever, share proprietary information about their most important evaluations.

Many mock drafters thought the Vikings would take Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman with the 18th pick, and he might turn out to have been the right choice. He was a safe pick at a position of need, and he should have a nice career with Chicago.

I can’t tell you whether Banks will stay healthy or become a star. What I can tell you is that if he turns out to be a star-caliber player, then the Vikings were right to take the massive, athletic defensive lineman over the safety.

NFL teams are known to value quarterbacks and edge rushers, for obvious reasons. But an interior defensive lineman who can destroy double teams, stuff running games and collapse the pocket from the inside might be even more important than edge rushers.

Vikings fans should know this. Think about watching Jerry Ball, John Randle, Pat Williams and Kevin Williams. They could destroy offensive plays before they even got started.

You can game-plan to pay extra attention to an edge rusher. You can’t do much to control an interior lineman who can split your guard and center and spend more time in the backfield than the opponent’s starting halfback.

The Banks selection carries risk. My guess is that two years from now, Vikings fans will be saying one of two things:

1. “I can’t believe they got this guy with the 18th pick. What were the other teams thinking?”

2. “Took a huge guy with foot problems. Of course he didn’t pan out.”

If you hated the pick, consider this:

On Thursday afternoon, former Alabama coach Nick Sabanjoined the ESPN draft panel to discuss prospects. Saban raved about Banks, noting that he has powerful hands that allow him to fight off blocks; that he is remarkably explosive for a man of his size; and that he’s nearly impossible to block when healthy.

Most prominent mock drafters work very hard to glean information. No mock drafters know as much about football as Saban.

The idea of “risk” in drafts is fascinating. Take a clear-eyed view of the history of the NFL draft and what you’ll find is that every decision carries risk and every player is one major injury away from being considered a bust (or a symbol of bad luck).

I have no idea how this draft is going to play out. I will say that two years ago, when the Vikings defense was rolling under coordinator Brian Flores, one of their keys to success was the health of inside linebacker Blake Cashman. Being strong up the middle is a hallmark of great teams.

The Vikings’ first three picks went to two defensive lineman and an inside linebacker. That might not make for fun draft viewing, but it’s also difficult to argue with philosophically.

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