The NFL Draft is finally at hand, and it is always a huge mountain to climb for both NFL executives and hard-core football fans.
This three-day affair is a seemingly unending event that takes nearly four hours for the first round on Day One. The second and third rounds approach five hours on Day Two, and the remaining four rounds take longer than six hours on Day Three.
Scouting reports in hand, there's not one team in the league — including the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams — that can afford to swing and miss this weekend. The old saw about drafting the “best available football player” has nothing to do with reality. It is about finding the best players that fill the biggest needs on every team.
Finding the best available player only holds when generational athletes are about to enter the league because they can change the direction of any franchise. If there is a Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White or Aaron Donald available, go ahead and draft him without a second thought.
Except that Donald was the 13th player selected in the 2014 NFL Draft, taken 12 picks after the Houston Texans used the first pick on Jadeveon Clowney, and after busts like Greg Robinson, Blake Bortles and Justin Gilbert. So much for identifying all-time great players.
The 32 teams in Roger Goodell’s world will combine to make 262 picks this weekend, and that ties 2003 for the most picks since the draft was a 12-round affair in 1992. The high number of draft choices is due to Rooney Rule picks, as the league awards compensatory picks in the third round to teams that have minority coaches or executives hired by competitors. This year’s third round includes 41 picks.
This draft should have a major impact on eight teams that have multiple first-round picks. These teams include the Lions (2 and 32), Texans (3 and 13), Jets (4 and 10), Giants (5 and 7), Eagles (15 and 18), Saints (16 and 19), Packers (22 and 28) and Chiefs (29 and 30).
The Vikings have the No. 12 pick in the first round, and they have eight picks overall in the seven-round draft. They have one pick in each of the first three rounds, no fourth-round picks, one fifth-round pick, three sixth-round picks and one pick in the seventh round.
They have several areas that they need to concentrate on in the first three rounds of the draft. Anyone who has seen the team play in 2020 or 2021 knows that pass coverage has been a consistent area of disappointment. It was better in 2021 than it was in 2020 after they signed Patrick Peterson, but the Vikings must address this area.
Throughout draft season, Derek Stingley Jr. of Louisiana State has been penciled in as the Vikings selection in the first round. He excels in man coverage and is the best cover corner in the draft. As more teams have studied Stingley, the likelihood is that he could be selected before the Vikings get a chance to call his name with the 12th choice.
If Stingley has been selected, Trent McDuffie of Washington could be the name called by general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. McDuffie is a brilliant athlete who excels in all aspects of position play. The negative about McDuffie is that he doesn’t have the arm length of most top corners, but he makes up for that deficiency with his instincts for the position, his intelligence and his athleticism.
It may not seem likely that the Vikings select another cornerback with their second-round pick, but going with consecutive picks at that position could ensure a very competitive training camp. First-round picks know they have to work hard, but when the No. 2 pick also plays the position, every day of training camp has the potential to be the turning point in who wins the positional battle.
If the Vikings choose to go with another cornerback with the 46th pick, Kyle Gordon of Washington and Roger McCready of Auburn could be the candidates. If not, wide receiver Christian Watson of North Dakota State may be the choice. Watson has demonstrated a superior ability to get a clean release off the line of scrimmage and get open.
Linebacker Channing Tindall of Georgia has some impressive characteristics that will allow him to be a special teams impact player. He has sideline-to-sideline ability and has a drive to get to the ball carrier that could be contagious on a defense that has not earned points for its aggressiveness.
