The Vikings have the biggest draft screwup nobody talks about

Nobody talks about? Obviously never been to this board, Lol… :P :angel:

The Vikes aren’t the only team w/ shit draft classes. The Patriots may only have Drake May left on their active roster from just last year’s draft, woof…

viking012 wrote:
I'd rather forget!!  Saw a new ESPN ranking, had Hamilton at #17.  UGH!!

The Vikings have the biggest draft screwup nobody talks about

Safety Lewis Cine was released by the Philadelphia Eagles over the weekend as the team prepared for the Tuesday cut down deadline. It likely ends an unceremonious three year NFL career that began with hopes that Cine could be heir apparent to a franchise legends in Minnesota, and quickly turned into a mess.

We all know the legendary draft screwups of the NFL: The Saints trading their entire class for Ricky Williams, the Chargers taking Ryan Leaf, and the Raiders making JaMarcus Russell a No. 1 pick — while what the Vikings did in 2022 isn’t close to that level of infamy, it’s still one of the most impressive draft screwups of the modern era. One that began with the team being in a spot to get an All-Pro defensive back, and winded up with Minnesota getting a handful of magic beans, making their rivals better in the process.

The trade that started it all
It was fairly clear what the Vikings needed to add in the 2022 NFL Draft. The team was in dire need of defensive back help, and save that a need to strengthen their interior offensive line. The stage was set at No. 12 for Minnesota to get the steal of the draft, with Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton stunningly still on the board after garnering Top 5 hype and being widely regarded as the best safety to enter the draft in years.

The Minnesota Vikings have traded the 12th overall pick to the Detroit Lions …

It was stunning, albeit slightly understandable when the Vikings first traded back in the first round. This was a deep class at DB, and the prevailing wisdom is that more picks are always better than fewer. The most surprising part is that Minnesota traded with one an in-division rival, and made a poor deal at that. The Vikings traded the No. 12 and No. 46 picks for No. 32, No. 34, and No. 66. Perhaps the team had a different internal calculator that the rest of the league, but it’s widely accepted under every public model that Minnesota lost their trade from anywhere to 200 to 400 points — while the Lions got WR Jameson Williams, who just posted his first 1,000 yard season after missing portions of the last two years due to off-field issues.

Kyle Hamilton was picked by the Baltimore Ravens at No. 14. He has been named an All-Pro in each of the last two seasons.

The Vikings finally get … a guy
As soon as Minnesota took Lewis Cine at No. 32 it raised questions. If the Vikings wanted a safety then why not take Kyle Hamilton instead of their trade back? Did they really have a board which dictated that so many first round talents would still be available when they picked at 32 and 34?

Nobody thought Cine was remotely on the same level as Hamilton as a prospect. Nobody. This isn’t some revisionist history coming out. At every point in the process Hamilton was a Top 10 pick, Cine was a fringe 1st round player (at best). The best trait Cine had was that he hit hard, playing more like a light linebacker in the secondary than a true safety — but this also made him below-average in pass coverage. In taking him the hope would be that you could coach up his coverage ability, and lean into his ability to deliver a big hit to play him up in the box. That’s a very hopeful plan, as it requires a young defensive back to try and learn to more difficult, nuanced part of their game upon entering the NFL.

In any event the Vikings took Cine, and then moved onto their next pick.

More trades
The N0. 34 pick was on the clock and Minnesota was poised to take another bite of the apple — then they traded this pick again. This time in a deal with another division rival in the Packers, this time getting No. 53 and No. 59. Once again an NFC North team got a receiver because of the deal, with Green Bay taking Christian Watson with the pick. He’s been an okay player for the Packers, not outstanding, not terrible — but part of the WR rotation.

Minnesota then decided to trade back up, this time with the Colts. They took CB Andrew Booth Jr. at No. 42, giving up picks 53, 77, and 192.

Two more trade backs later in the 4th round and the snowball that began at No. 12 finally finished. The entire trade was complete and we saw the “haul” the Vikings were able to get by giving up their ability to get one of the best safeties in football.

S Lewis Cine

CB Andrew Booth Jr.

OG Ed Engram

DE Esezi Otomewo

RB Ty Chandler

It can’t be overstated how awful these picks were. Cine was just cut by the Eagles, Booth Jr. is 8th on the Cowboys depth chart at corner, Engram is the Texans’ backup RG, Otomewo is buried on the Steelers depth chart, and Chandler ran for 182 yards last season. The only guy who managed to still stick on this roster is a 4th string running back. Meanwhile the Ravens got gifted Kyle Hamilton, the Lions got a starting WR, the Packers got a solid rotational receiver, and even the Colts won their trade, netting starting WR Alec Piece as part of their 2nd round trade.

It’s rare to find a team make this many picks and whiff on so many, while others around them got so much better as a result.

The only reason KAM gets an "F" for this draft is because I can't grade any lower.

Yep. It was a dogshit draft. No two ways around that. Not just for passing over Hamilton to take Cine, but the fact that we had 10 picks and only Chandler and Nailor remain. We've been shutout before (2016), but not with that many picks. Thankfully, the NFL has this mulligan called free agency that gives teams a chance to cover their draft errors, and the Vikings have taken advantage of that, maybe more than any other team. Hell, they had to. 

I think a bigger screw up was Howie Roseman taking Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson. But that's been talked about plenty. Howie clearly learned from his big mistake, because they've drafted well since then. The Vikings have improved too. It's still early, but Addison, McCarthy, Turner and Donovan Jackson look like hits. Hopefully, a couple others like Jurgens, Rouse, Ward, Reichard, LDR and TID will prove worthy of their draft slots as well.

If he hits on JJM, nobody will remember the rest.

You can blame a lot of things draft related on Kwesi. Hamilton to a large extent isn't one of them. They were never picking him because he didn't fit Donatell's defense. Ole Ed was the vet coach hired to mentor the young HC. And was a guy that for whatever reason carried a lot of weight year one.

Yes, Kwesi could have picked him anyways. But Ed could have pulled the same shit Zimmer did when Rick drafted/signed players he wasn't on board with. Which was not to utilize them or be an insufferable prick to them.

This coupled with that draft being done solely with Spielmans leftovers in the scouting department, Hamilton was never gonna be selected. Props to Kwesi for identifying quickly that Donatell was a mistake and cut bait for B-Flo.

bigbone62 wrote:
You can blame a lot of things draft related on Kwesi. Hamilton to a large extent isn't one of them. They were never picking him because he didn't fit Donatell's defense. Ole Ed was the vet coach hired to mentor the young HC. And was a guy that for whatever reason carried a lot of weight year one.

Yes, Kwesi could have picked him anyways. But Ed could have pulled the same shit Zimmer did when Rick drafted/signed players he wasn't on board with. Which was not to utilize them or be an insufferable prick to them.

This coupled with that draft being done solely with Spielmans leftovers in the scouting department, Hamilton was never gonna be selected. Props to Kwesi for identifying quickly that Donatell was a mistake and cut bait for B-Flo.

Kams primary job is to identify talent and aquire the best he can,  this was a huge miss.  Asst. Coaches wishes be damned,  that was a pick that needed to be made and any talk to the contrary are just excuses.  I think Kam got carried away with his new toy and made a big oversight as a result.

And im pretty sure any system can find a role for a player of Hamiltons skill.

bigbone62 wrote:
You can blame a lot of things draft related on Kwesi. Hamilton to a large extent isn't one of them. They were never picking him because he didn't fit Donatell's defense. Ole Ed was the vet coach hired to mentor the young HC. And was a guy that for whatever reason carried a lot of weight year one.

Yes, Kwesi could have picked him anyways. But Ed could have pulled the same shit Zimmer did when Rick drafted/signed players he wasn't on board with. Which was not to utilize them or be an insufferable prick to them.

This coupled with that draft being done solely with Spielmans leftovers in the scouting department, Hamilton was never gonna be selected. Props to Kwesi for identifying quickly that Donatell was a mistake and cut bait for B-Flo.

That's a really good point that I keep forgetting about....that Donatell was our DC that year. We took 5 defensive players, all of whom were misses. I don't know the relationship he and Kwesi had, but it's common for coordinators to have a very big say in which players the GM selects.

greediron wrote:
If he hits on JJM, nobody will remember the rest.

No, I will remember TURNER...

Thats a big one we cant afford to miss on.

MaroonBells wrote:

That's a really good point that I keep forgetting about....that Donatell was our DC that year. We took 5 defensive players, all of whom were misses. I don't know the relationship he and Kwesi had, but it's common for coordinators to have a very big say in which players the GM selects.

Fitting that _onatell missed on his picks.  Probably played 20 yards off and didn't know what round we were in.

Though I agree it was a colossal fuckup, I also feel like I and everyone else bitched plenty about it in the aftermath but at this point we're 3.5 years removed and the grade is F and it's time to move on. The team reupped KAM so they believe in him and that's who's running it for better or worse for the foreseeable future. I personally don't get anything out of beating the dead horse endlessly.

MaroonBells wrote:
Yep. It was a dogshit draft. No two ways around that. Not just for passing over Hamilton to take Cine, but the fact that we had 10 picks and only Chandler and Nailor remain. We've been shutout before (2016), but not with that many picks. Thankfully, the NFL has this mulligan called free agency that gives teams a chance to cover their draft errors, and the Vikings have taken advantage of that, maybe more than any other team. Hell, they had to. 

I think a bigger screw up was Howie Roseman taking Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson. But that's been talked about plenty. Howie clearly learned from his big mistake, because they've drafted well since then. The Vikings have improved too. It's still early, but Addison, McCarthy, Turner and Donovan Jackson look like hits. Hopefully, a couple others like Jurgens, Rouse, Ward, Reichard, LDR and TID will prove worthy of their draft slots as well.

Allow me to piggyback on your post. The Vikings drafted JJ with a pick received from Buffalo in the Diggs trade. Imagine if Buffalo doesn't make that trade & instead drafts JJ to pair with Josh Allen.

2022 was kwesis first draft. On this board there were pages and pages of comprehensive plans on what kwesi should do.

No one, I mean no one predicted 2 trade downs with divisional opponents in which the Vikings got short changed in both instances.

The consensus at the time was, this makes no sense, but I'm just rube over analytical fan, what do do i know.

Imo Drafting ponder in 2011 is the most comparable example to where the internal alarm bells were going off.

To his credit kwesi has learned both in drafting and unrestricted free agency.

JimmyinSD wrote:

Kams primary job is to identify talent and aquire the best he can,  this was a huge miss.  Asst. Coaches wishes be damned,  that was a pick that needed to be made and any talk to the contrary are just excuses.  I think Kam got carried away with his new toy and made a big oversight as a result.

And im pretty sure any system can find a role for a player of Hamiltons skill.

That's simply not how it works, but also not what a GM's primary job is. Their primary job is to identify and acquire talent for the system the coaches run.  Then let coaches do their job. You don't draft a guy who isn't a fit for your system just because he's good at a position of need. 

Using your logic we could just plug and play any ole first round lineman. Ability to zone block be damned.
Be real, if they drafted him and he was ass in the Donatell system you still would have complained.

bigbone62 wrote:

That's simply not how it works, but also not what a GM's primary job is. Their primary job is to identify and acquire talent for the system the coaches run.  Then let coaches do their job. You don't draft a guy who isn't a fit for your system just because he's good at a position of need. 

Using your logic we could just plug and play any ole first round lineman. Ability to zone block be damned.
Be real, if they drafted him and he was ass in the Donatell system you still would have complained.

Probably some middle ground.  Maybe he wasn't a great fit for Donatell (nobody was) but to ignore that type of talent is a miss.  It was a bad situation with a bad DC, a rookie GM and a rookie HC.  And the results are evident.

bigbone62 wrote:

That's simply not how it works, but also not what a GM's primary job is. Their primary job is to identify and acquire talent for the system the coaches run.  Then let coaches do their job. You don't draft a guy who isn't a fit for your system just because he's good at a position of need. 

Using your logic we could just plug and play any ole first round lineman. Ability to zone block be damned.
Be real, if they drafted him and he was ass in the Donatell system you still would have complained.

Yes I would have,   I would have bitched at the system that can't get quality play from stud football players....Just like we all did because Donatells system sucked ass,  many here said as much when he was hired.   Which is soemthing I would have expected an NFL GM to know,  not to go throwing away a draft class trying to fix a failed system.

In my opinion the Vikings made TWO massively HUGE, league history changing, franchise changing draft blunders which should have been NO BRAINERS:

Darrin Nelson over Marcus Allen
Derrick Alexander over Warren Sapp

2 or maybe 3 Super Bowls would have been won had been won in my opinion had the Vikings not made these terrible decisions.   And the Herschel Walker trade would NEVER have happened.  Would Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys won those three Super Bowls????

So as bad as the Cine pick was it is so trivial compared to these two absolute BLUNDERS

Good God, nobody will shut up about it lol.

Someone should tell my friends who aren't Vikings fans that no one ever talks about this.