A-
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings turned the phones into found money: A-.
by TCSmith ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 11 picks
· 2 steals
· 1 reaches
Give the war room a raise for the dealing alone. The Vikings came out ahead on every exchange that mattered, and it was not close. The sum of the weekend is a deserved A-.
Bortolini has a lot of ground to make up just to look fairly priced. If one pick saves this weekend, it is Simpson. For all the activity, tight end went untouched, which is hard to explain.
Trust the process, because this time the process plainly worked.
Pick-by-Pick
A tidy little value on T.J. Tampa in slot 46, a step better than break-even. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
A clean, defensible pick in the 60th pick with a little surplus value in Brandon Dorlus. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Gabriel Murphy in No. 91. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Jacob Cowing in pick No. 107 lands just on the right side of the ledger. It fills a real need, too.
A straight-up fair deal on Jaden Hicks at the Round 4 slot, value and slot in agreement. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
No drama and no debate, MarShawn Lloyd went about where he belonged in pick 130. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Javion Cohen in Round 5, Pick 12 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Joe Milton III in the 160th overall pick is exactly on the number, no argument either way. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Steal is underselling it; Jaylin Simpson at slot 165 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
They talked themselves into Tanor Bortolini at Round 6, Pick 4, and the board did not agree. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Blake Watson slid further than he should have, and the Round 7 slot is lovely value for the running back. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.