Discussing Some Discrepancies Between a Pair of Draft Boards Ahead of Vikings’ Draft
K. Joudry
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On Friday, PurplePTSD Managing Editor Josh Frey released his draft board. The undertaking is a pretty major one since it places fifty prospects into a hierarchy just ahead of the Vikings’ draft.
Not too long ago, the fine folks at Purple Pain Forums participated in a similar exercise. More specifically, Danchat assembled a “consensus draft board,” leaning on spots like PFF and experts like Dane Brugler to help. What kind of discrepancies exist between the boards? Do these differences offer any insight?
The Board Battle: The Vikings’ Draft and the Prospect Lists
Forget Waldo: where’s Bo Nix?
Truth be told, Frey isn’t too high on the Oregon passer. What’s notable is that Frey completely omits Nix from his board, standing in contrast to Danchat’s placement at 37th.
For a little while, I’ve been pointing toward Mr. Nix as an option in Minnesota. Recently, Peter Schrager (among others) gave the theory a bit more credence. Nix is an accurate passer with pretty good size. His statistics in recent seasons are formidable.
Most appealing, perhaps, is that he won’t cost nearly as much as some of the other passers in the draft.
And yet the difference between the two boards help to reveal an important truth: the draft community doesn’t have certainty about Nix in the same way that they do for someone like Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., or Joe Alt.
One of the moments of harmony across the boards rests in the shared praise for the draft’s top edge rushers.
Danchat stacks the top trio along the edge, placing Dallas Turner, Laiatu Latu, and Jared Verse one after another from No. 17-19. Meanwhile, Frey adjusts the order a bit and spreads them out more. He puts Latu at No. 11, Verse at No. 13, and Turner at No. 15.
The NFL’s emphasis on passing drives teams toward choosing QBs and yet it should also push them toward choosing pass rushers. Loading up on guys who can disrupt the passing game is a surefire way of giving rival OCs sleepless nights. Don’t be shocked to see Minnesota make a move for a pass rusher early.
A couple other scattered thoughts. Frey puts TE Brock Bowers at No. 5 whereas Danchat has him at No. 8. It’s possible he’s more than worth a top-10 choice, but seeing Minnesota snag him — even at 11th — would be wild.
The board on the forums features a pair of corners in the top 10 — Quinyon Mitchell and Terrion Arnold — whereas Frey only gets a pair of corners into his top 20. Meanwhile, Brian Flores wants more corners.
All of the speculation will stop before long. The 2024 NFL Draft is taking place from Thursday, April 25th to Saturday, April 27th. The Vikings are sitting on nine draft picks.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.