One Gentleman from ESPN Reignites Beef With Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings entered the draft with a clean slate. No former sins were left to address, as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah presented at least a serviceable solution for each roster problem in free agency. Ultimately, he chose Ohio State’s offensive guard, Donovan Jackson.
One Gentleman from ESPN Reignites Beef With Vikings
Many anticipated a trade-down from the 24th pick, but Adofo-Mensah decided to stick there, and undoubtedly, there were some calls being made considering the next two teams opted to accept a trade. Regardless, Skol Nation is generally happy with the pick after watching a decade-long offensive line disaster.
ESPN analyst Seth Walder, however, has yet to be convinced it was the right move. Right after the pick, he used social media to spread his disapproval.
His words: “Three ways to lose at the NFL Draft: 1) Reach for players before they are likely to be selected. 2) Draft low value positions early. 3) Trade up and/or fail to trade down. Anyway just thinking about the Vikings.”
Oof.
Donovan Jackson ranked 36th on Arif Hasan’s consensus big board. That could be considered a reach at 24, but it’s not a blatant one that should qualify for too much criticism. It deserves a mention that Mel Kiper Jr., a fellow ESPN employee, made that exact pick in not just one but two mock drafts.
Is guard really a low-value position in 2025? Teams continue to pay guards more and more money. The top guys make over $20 million a year, and the Vikings also just signed Will Fries in free agency, paying him an annual average of $17.544 million. Defensive lines are getting better and better while offensive lines struggle more and more.
It’s the quickest path to the quarterback, and teams know it. Protecting against it isn’t a bad move. Guards used to cost peanuts compared to offensive tackles, but that’s no longer the case. Every time Tom Brady was the next opponent, teams tried to generate interior pressure. The legendary passer hated it, and it’s the best way to wreck a play.
Last year, the Vikings traded up for Dallas Turner, an exciting prospect due to his elite physical ability. It remains to be seen whether that was actually a good deal. Failing to trade down can be criticized, but one could say that trading down for the sake of trading down while failing to secure the top draft target isn’t really a successful strategy either.
Walder’s Vikings Blunder
Last offseason, many were pessimistic about the Vikings, but few leaned as far in that direction as Walder. Last September, one of his projections for the 2024 season had the purple franchise land the first overall pick.
He wrote in September: “The Vikings stumble to the No. 1 overall pick. There was hope, back in the halcyon days of September, that quarterback Sam Darnold would finally figure it out after spending the 2023 season with Kyle Shanahan before playing in Kevin O’Connell’s scheme in 2024. How naïve we were. Darnold did not, in fact, figure it out. The Minnesota Vikings’ offense crumbled while the rest of the league came up with adjustments to defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ relentless blitzes.”
The defense was elite, and Sam Darnold did, in fact, figure it out.
“The result? A paltry four-win season. But with the losing came hope in the form of the No. 1 overall pick. With their quarterback already in hand — J.J. McCarthy is the QB of the future here, despite his right meniscus tear — the Vikings enter the offseason in position to deal the No. 1 pick to a QB-needy team for a series of selections that will bolster the roster for an immediate turnaround. The present is bleak in Minnesota, but the future is bright.”
The Vikings would finish with a 14-3 record and draft 24th, not first.
Bottom Line
Let’s rephrase Walder’s post in a more glass-half-full approach.
“Three ways to win at the NFL Draft. : 1) Draft a good football player at a position of need. 2) The trenches are important, two months after we saw the offensive line of the dynasty Chiefs get dismantled in the Super Bowl. 3) Stick and pick the guy you love instead of forcing a trade.”
Another ESPN voice, Field Yates, is a big fan of the draft selection: “Donovan Jackson to the Vikings just might be my favorite pick of the night. By the end of this past season, he had put on elite tape at both guard AND left tackle. An extremely dependable, selfless player. He’s tough, rugged and athletic. Excellent football player.”
In the comment section, he added, “He kicks ass and the doesn’t apologize for a damn thing.”
That sounds like a guy one wants to have in front of first-time starter, J.J. McCarthy.