Many of The Draft Grades Aren’t Particularly Kind to The Vikings
K. Joudry
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Draft grades, as we all know, ought to be taken with a grain of salt. It takes several years before we know whether a draft was a good one or not. Even still, Vikings fans may be feeling a touch discouraged to see the draft grades being so modest for Minnesota.
Sheil Kapadia of The Athletic weighs in, giving the Vikings a B- grade. Take a look at some of his rationale:
I like Cine a lot. He’s a physical safety, an excellent athlete, and he produced at Georgia. No issue at all with that pick. And if the Vikings were comfortable with Booth’s medicals, that could be a home run pick. The Ingram selection was a head-scratcher. Ingram was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault involving a minor in 2018. The charges were dismissed a year later, and he was reinstated at LSU. Ingram was 114th on Brugler’s board and 101 on Hasan’s consensus board. The Vikings took him at 59.
The Vikings didn’t do anything egregious. They drafted for volume, and their top two picks could end up being great. But zooming out, it’s fair to wonder if much has changed in Minnesota despite the turnover at coach and GM this offseason.
Thor Nystrom of Rotoworld is also lukewarm in his assessment, handing out a C+ grade:
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s first two picks were strong, and both targeted a leaking secondary crying out for help. Cine joins Harrison Smith in what will become the hardest-hitting safety duo in the NFL. After that, it was hit-and-miss. I’m confused by the Ingram pick. It felt like the Vikings reached for a prospect with a serious off-field concern in his past by at least a round, a prospect who doesn’t have the ceiling to justify the reach. The Asamoah pick was similarly odd. If you wanted to take an undersized linebacker, by all means. But why Asamoah over Nakobe Dean? Minnesota could have traded down half a round and still picked the latter.
One more. Take a look at the PFF draft grades, especially the B evaluation of the Vikings draft:
After trading back, the Vikings land PFF’s No. 2 safety and 26th-best prospect overall, Lewis Cine, at No. 32. The Georgia Bulldog — like most players on the team — is an elite athlete. He posted a 4.37-second 40-yard dash and an 11-foot-1 broad jump at the NFL Scouting Combine. He was one of the best safeties in college football last year, turning in an 82.4 PFF grade that ranked eighth in the Power Five. Cine was also one of the best tacklers in the country at Georgia, with just 11 misses on 159 career attempts. He was primarily a deep safety in college, but he can fill a more versatile role in Minnesota.
In my mind, the Vikings are within the range that these three draft grades suggest. By no means a complete failure or success, Minnesota’s draft had things to be excited and concerned about. At the very least, we should expect to see Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth Jr. making an impact in their rookie seasons. If a couple others end up being contributors, then the modest grades will slowly start to get pushed higher.
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