How do you grade the Vikings draft?

[VikingLord]

I'd give the first two rounds an 'A'. Spielman got great value in the first 2 rounds. I think both of them will see significant minutes this coming year and both have the potential to be serious future contributors at their positions.

After that I'm not as excited. I think the Vikings could have done a bit more to buttress the safety spot opposite Smith and that 3rd round pick might have been the place and time to do it. Hopefully the trade down this year pays off and the Vikes won't get exposed at that spot like they did at times this last season.

Overall, I'd give them a 'B', mostly because the picks from Round 4 on down are pretty speculative. Spielman was swinging for the fence with several of them and they could pay off, but then again, it would be easy to see none of them make the team too.

[fiestavike]

By this metric the Vikings are ranked 3rd in this years draft. As someone outside the teams own evaluation process, it seems like just about as fair a metric as one can come up with.


http://coldomaha.com/2016/vikings/the-2 ... ams-draft/

We’ve been doing a lot of work with the 2016 NFL Consensus Board over the week, but there’s still a few things left to do—including grading drafts.

If we’re willing to evaluate players and put round grades on them before the draft, we can at least get a preliminary understanding of how teams did relative to how people graded those players. People always seem to hesitate grading drafts until three years after it’s concluded and it’s fine to argue that we don’t really know: we don’t. But we also don’t have zero information, and we know how good a lot of very smart people thought players are.

The Minnesota Vikings had the best grade of the 2014 draft, the second-best grade of the 2015 draft and sit here third in 2016. Overall, they have by far the best grade of the three drafts combined.

[losperros]

I'd give the first two rounds an 'A'. Spielman got great value in the first 2 rounds. I think both of them will see significant minutes this coming year and both have the potential to be serious future contributors at their positions.

After that I'm not as excited. I think the Vikings could have done a bit more to buttress the safety spot opposite Smith and that 3rd round pick might have been the place and time to do it. Hopefully the trade down this year pays off and the Vikes won't get exposed at that spot like they did at times this last season.

Overall, I'd give them a 'B', mostly because the picks from Round 4 on down are pretty speculative. Spielman was swinging for the fence with several of them and they could pay off, but then again, it would be easy to see none of them make the team too.

You read my mind. That's how I see it, Edward.

Actually, I'm not sure what grade to give them. Not yet. This is one of those drafts where we really have to wait to see how many of these guys work out as NFL players. Then again, maybe every draft is that way.

[mansquatch]

Grades at this point are IMO a waste of time, we know nothing right now.

Still, overall it was a boring draft. I think part of that is because we are used to getting 2 first rounders most every year due to Spielman's wheeling and dealing. I was really OK with the 3rd round trade as I felt like Rick was reloading for next year's draft.

Given that most late round (4th round and beyond) selections never see the field beyond special teams I’m not really all the concerned about the late round choices. They pan out or they don’t, we’ll add more next year.
The CB pick seemed like a BPA thing more than anything else. Having depth there doesn’t seem like a bad idea, we’ve seen what happens when guys get hurt in that group. He is young, so my guess is we won’t see much of him until the 2018 season, maybe 2017 if he turns it up.

I wasn’t too upset about the C thing, we traded Hodges to SF for that Eason kid and we have Berger. Berger is older as is Sullivan so that could become an issue, but for now we should be OK. Fusco at RG hasn’t been all bad, so this doesn’t constitute a crisis… yet. I think the major issue is going to be tackle next year and that is likely why Rick traded that 3rd round pick, at least IMO. If they win 11 games next year they will need to trade up to get a quality tackle prospect and that means they will need picks to use to make the move without breaking the draft.

At this point the draft is going to be all about how well Treadwell plays. I liked the pick, he is physical and should be an asset in the red zone. We have had a guy who can win on fights for the ball since Sidney Rice was here and if he can build confidence with TB, that should help our passing game by opening up some throws that TB probably will not make today.

[Mothman]

Grades at this point are IMO a waste of time, we know nothing right now.

Still, overall it was a boring draft. I think part of that is because we are used to getting 2 first rounders most every year due to Spielman's wheeling and dealing. I was really OK with the 3rd round trade as I felt like Rick was reloading for next year's draft.

Given that most late round (4th round and beyond) selections never see the field beyond special teams I’m not really all the concerned about the late round choices. They pan out or they don’t, we’ll add more next year.
The CB pick seemed like a BPA thing more than anything else. Having depth there doesn’t seem like a bad idea, we’ve seen what happens when guys get hurt in that group. He is young, so my guess is we won’t see much of him until the 2018 season, maybe 2017 if he turns it up.

I'm betting it was a pick made in anticipation of replacing Munnerlyn in 2017.

[S197]

Mel Kiper gave the Vikes draft a B-:

http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... -draft-a-b

Kiper's write-up is behind ESPN's Insider paywall but Ben Goessling covers it at the link above.

He gave the Vikings a "B" initially last year, which was subsequently upgraded to "A" after the production of the rookies. Hopefully we get the same this year.

[mondry]

A+, we got Revis, Dez, German Patterson, tons of ammo for next year, Alex boon clone, a Kearse, I mean do I have to go on? Championship!

[fiestavike]

A+, we got Revis, Dez, German Patterson, tons of ammo for next year, Alex boon clone, a Kearse, I mean do I have to go on? Championship!

Herr Moritz Pattersohn!

[saint33]

I'm amazed how low the board as a whole is ranking this draft. I expect some of you to be pleasantly surprised at the impact we get from this class

Treadwell is a good pick. I was not a fan of the WRs at the top of this draft, treadwell was the only one with a 1st round grade imo. Considering the way the board played out, I would have preferred Nkemdiche, but treadwell was not a bad selection.

Alexander was an absolute steal. He was my favorite DB in this whole draft class, probably even my favorite player. Had we had a larger need at CB, he would've been my first round target all along. The fact he was there in the 2nd round was incredible. This kid will be a lockdown CB

Beavers was the only pick I truly didn't like.

Brothers was another very strong pick where we got him. 2 down linebacker, but incredibly instinctive and intelligent. And although he didn't time well, he looked like one of the fastest players on the field in games. This kid could push for a starting role early. I had a 2-3 round grade on him

Moe was a low risk, potentially high reward pick. The talent is obviously there to be a huge steal. Obviously it's hard to predict how he'll transition to the more complex and faster game though. But there are plenty of kids who make it coming out of tiny universities no ones ever heard of, or from Canada. To think that football players can only be produced in America is very narrow minded, I'm glad the Vikings are willing to extend their search beyond those small parameters.

Morgan was a sneaky good pick. Great insurance for Ellison, he can play out a nice underrated career like a number of blocking TEs have in the past here. But I think Morgan has more upside in the passing game then most blocking tightends

The two 7th round picks were meh, know very little about weatherly, although I do know that he's quite intelligent academically, which is something I guess. Kearse is also a smart kid and has a great attitude, I wanna root for him. But there's simply too much bad tape out there on him, I don't see him ever developing the consistency to be success at the NFL level

Is give this draft an initial B+

[mondry]

Hey saint! How ya been? Thanks for sharing your analysis / thoughts, I agree quite a bit!

[Pondering Her Percy]

By this metric the Vikings are ranked 3rd in this years draft. As someone outside the teams own evaluation process, it seems like just about as fair a metric as one can come up with.


http://coldomaha.com/2016/vikings/the-2 ... ams-draft/

When you actually look at those rankings for this years draft, it actually does make a lot of sense. They have NE and Car towards the bottom and they should be because both had pretty weak drafts. Jacksonville was a given #1. I dont think an evaluation like that is the end-all-be-all but it definitely matches up pretty well

[Pondering Her Percy]

Beavers was the only pick I truly didn't like.

I'm not sure why so many are down on Beavers. He's a solid athlete that has tons of versatility along with a mean streak. He was one of the better offensive lineman on the board at that point thats for sure

[mansquatch]

I'm betting it was a pick made in anticipation of replacing Munnerlyn in 2017.

That thought crossed my mind, but Munnerlyn was improved in 2015. I think it is more insurance than anything.

[Pondering Her Percy]

Lance Zerlien, an OLine guru says:

Beavers is very athletic with the feet to play left tackle, but has the talent and traits to play all over the offensive line with more technique work. While he clearly has some power and twitch in his hips, he could use a year in an NFL weight room to strengthen his core and upper body. Beavers is an eventual NFL starter who is likely to be targeted by teams who covet tackles who can excel in space.

3rd round grade

[Jordysghost]

When you actually look at those rankings for this years draft, it actually does make a lot of sense. They have NE and Car towards the bottom and they should be because both had pretty weak drafts. Jacksonville was a given #1. I dont think an evaluation like that is the end-all-be-all but it definitely matches up pretty well

The problem is with.articles like this, is they dont have access to the actual TEAM's draftboards, only the prognosticators draftboards, which are often very, very different. These grades are all based on perceived value and how much teams adhere to the medias draftboards.

Can you imagine if a GM used NFL Network and ESPN draftboards when drafting players? Every pick he made would be hailed as a 'great value' and he would be scoring A+ grades from every talking head.