At the time this post goes live (the morning of the first day of the 2018 NFL draft, unless I messed up my scheduling), the Minnesota Vikings have the following eight draft picks to make over the next couple of days:
- R1N30 (30th overall) – The Vikings lost in the NFC Championship game, so they’re the third-to-last pick in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft
- R2N30 (62nd overall) – Third-to-last in each of the following rounds except where noted.
- R3N30 (94th overall)
R4N30 (126th overall)– Traded to Philadelphia as part of the Sam Bradford deal in 2017.- R5N30 (167th overall)
- R6N30 (204th overall)
- R6N39 (213th overall) – Compensatory pick
- R6N44 (218th overall) – Compensatory pick
R7N30 (222nd overall)– Traded to San Francisco for cornerback Brock Tramaine in 2017 (who is no longer with the team)- R7N33 (225th overall) – Acquired from Denver in the Trevor Siemian trade earlier this year.
Based on past experience with Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, it’d be foolish to assume that each of those draft picks will be used by the Vikings … they don’t call him “Trader Rick” without good reason. For example, it wouldn’t be any sort of surprise if the Vikings find a trade partner for their first round pick and move down into the second round in exchange for additional later round picks. The consensus among Viking fan sites is that the team’s top need is offensive line help — either at the guard or tackle spots — and the belief is that this is a good (that is, deep) draft for OL prospects. That supports the notion that the Vikings will try to trade down, as Spielman usually tries to gather ten draft picks in any given draft and the best way to do that without mortgaging the future is to trade down.
I don’t follow college football, so there’s no point at all in my trying to predict who the team will end up drafting, but there are certain positions that are clearly higher priority (aside from the obvious OL need mentioned above), so it would be surprising if the Vikings don’t draft players for these roles:
- Offensive guard (or offensive tackle, if the coaches think Mike Remmers would be better suited to the guard position)
- Cornerback – Terence Newman is a free agent who may choose to retire, and Mackenzie Alexander is the only experienced backup on the roster.
- Defensive tackle – Linval Joseph is very good and should work well with off-season addition Sheldon Richardson, but the team needs depth behind these two with the loss of Tom Johnson and Shamar Stephen in free agency.
- Running back – Dalvin Cook is coming off ACL surgery and Latavius Murray restructured his contract this year, but the team will miss the 3rd down/change-up role that Jerick McKinnon played so well in 2017.
- Tight end – Kyle Rudolph and David Morgan need at least one good backup behind them.
- Safety – Harrison Smith is now acknowledged as one of the best in the NFL and Andrew Sendejo would have to really decline to lose his spot, but depth is always a good thing.
Other less-important needs are at wide receiver (the Laquon Treadwell experiment seems to be coming to a close), swing tackle (Rashod Hill did well, but he’s not really full-time starting material), and linebacker (depth, unless we draft someone who can challenge Ben Gedeon for the third LB spot).
Also, for those of you who enjoy getting the real story, here’s Ted Glover’s creative re-interpretation of Rick Spielman’s press conference before the draft. It explains* everything**.
* By “explain” I mean “the closest thing to an involuntary psychedelic trip based — very loosely — on what Spielman said”.
** By “everything”, I of course mean “you’ll never take me alive, coppers!” “certain aspects, as viewed from a dimension where the skies are a remarkably attractive shade of purple”.
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