3 Vikings Draft Trends Will Soon Get Tested
The greater the sample size, the easier it is to offer an educated guesses.
Gone is Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, fired after a mixture of good and bad decisions in his time as Minnesota’s top executive. Rallying around Rob Brzezinski makes sense given that he has worked in the Twin Cities for a long time. What’s yet to be determined, though, is the longevity of recent Vikings draft trends since there’s no well-worn path to look for patterns. Consider some things to watch as the 2026 NFL Draft shows up on the horizon (Thursday, April 23rd to Saturday, April 25th).
3 Vikings Draft Trends and April’s Test
Vikings Draft Trend No. 1 — Age & College in RD1
Shrink things down to the past five picks from the Vikings’ opening round. These are the 1st-Round selections from the Adofo-Mensah days:
- 2022: Lewis Cine, Georgia
- 2023: Jordan Addison, USC
- 2024: J.J. McCarthy, Michigan
- 2024: Dallas Turner, Alabama
- 2025: Donovan Jackson, Ohio State
The colleges under consideration are the equivalent of A-list celebrities in Hollywood. Ohio State, Alabama, and Michigan are as high as it gets. Maybe USC is a step behind, but we’re still talking about a formidable program.
Consider the ages of the picks: Cine was 22, Addison was 21, McCarthy was 21, Turner was 21, and Jackson was 22. If the trend continues, look for youth coming out of a major program. Unless, of course, Brzezinski opts to deviate from the pattern.
Vikings Draft Trend No. 2 — Elbows Up Among the UDFA Talent
Recently, Adam Thielen and C.J. Ham retired after long, illustrious careers. Neither was drafted. Likewise, the priciest Vikings deal from within NFL free agency belonged to Eric Wilson, who was originally added from within the UDFA frenzy back in 2017.
Does the trend continue?
Adofo-Mensah had a reputation as being someone who brought aboard large collections of UDFA talent. Think lots of players who often got paid well. Recently, Bo Richter, Ivan Pace Jr., Ben Yurosek, Joe Huber, Ryan Wright, Andre Carter, Luiji Vilain, Gabriel Murphy, Tyler Batty, Chaz Chambliss, Austin Keys, Myles Price, and many more got added as undrafted talents.
To be clear, the claim here isn’t that the Vikings are going to forego the UDFA process. Such a claim has no basis in reality. What’s unclear, though, is whether the Vikings are as aggressive. Do so many UDFAs get brought to town? Do they demand so much in guaranteed money?
Those questions will get answered at the end of April.
Vikings Draft Trend No. 3 — Whiffs at Corner
It’s been a minute since the Vikings drafted a corner who had any staying power. An optimist would say that the bad luck can’t continue.
Andrew Booth Jr. didn’t work out. Neither did Akayleb Evans. Mekhi Blackmon got shipped out, as well. Dwight McGlothern and Zemaiah Vaughn are still around (examples of UDFA success, albeit on a modest level). The starters are going to be Byron Murphy Jr., Isaiah Rodgers, and James Pierre, all of whom cut their teeth in different cities before putting pen to paper as free agents.
The Vikings can’t continue the trend of whiffing at corner, which is among the NFL’s most important positions. Choosing a young, high-end CB would go a long way for the franchise that was once known as a hotbed of corner talent.
Maybe the best guess at this stage is that Minnesota opts for a safety in the opening round. That’s a theory with a pile of merit, especially if the safety can function as a slot corner. Even in that scenario — a RD1 safety — Minnesota needs to double dip to keep helping the secondary, selecting a minimum of one corner before the event finishes off.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
