As I always have said, I don’t follow college football in the slightest, so I can’t make any pontifications about the specific players chosen in the draft. I depend on folks like Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune to keep me up to date on who got drafted and why:
This was Spielman’s first draft as the Vikings’ unquestioned personnel boss, and we can divide it into two phases:
- He seemed to do well with his first four picks.
- He, like everybody else who does his job, was playing Lotto after that.
Spielman landed the best offensive lineman in the draft (Kalil) after trading down a spot to pick up three extra draft choices. He traded into the first round to land the second-best safety in the draft in Notre Dame’s Harrison Smith, who by default instantly became the Vikings’ best safety since Darren Sharper arrived in 2005.
He took speedy cornerback Josh Robinson in the third round, and flashy-if-small Arkansas receiver Julius Wright with his first fourth-round pick.
So with his first four choices, Spielman appeared to draft for both quality and need. After that, he was either displaying a keen appreciation for hidden talent, or he was throwing bent darts at a moving bull’s-eye.
As I said after the first day’s selections, Spielman made the right decisions as far as covering the positions at which the Vikings were glaringly poor last season. After that, though, my guesses weren’t as close as I’d thought they’d be. My thoughts were that a tall, speedy wide receiver was the next most urgent requirement, and they did select a receiver, but Julius Wright seems more like another Percy Harvin — not that there’d be anything wrong with cloning Harvin, but slot receiver was not a notable requirement.
I’d mentioned drafting another running back for depth would be a sensible move, and with the news today that Caleb King has been arrested on an assault charge, that need was probably greater than I’d thought. With Adrian Peterson still rehabbing from his ACL injury in December, Toby Gerhart will need someone behind him for change-of-pace and the odd breathing spell.
Here are the players drafted:
1. (4) Matt Kalil, LT, Southern California
1. (29) Harrison Smith, S, Notre Dame
3. (66) Josh Robinson, CB, Central Florida
4. (118) Jarius Wright, WR, Arkansas
4. (128) Rhett Ellison, TE, Southern California
4. (134) Greg Childs, WR, Arkansas
5. (139) Robert Blanton Jr., CB, Notre Dame
6. (175) Blair Walsh, K, Georgia
7. (210) Audie Cole, LB, North Carolina State
7. (219) Trevor Guyton, DE, California
Once the draft was over, the team signed 15 undrafted free agents. The first time all the rookies will be on the training field together will be this coming Friday at the Vikings’ rookie mini-camp.
Here are two exhausted ESPN 1500 guys, Tom Pelissero and Judd Zulgad, discussing the Vikings’ draft picks on the last day:
