The NFL draft can be viewed as a crapshoot. Whether you buy into that mentality or not, it’s clear that a team’s performance in the event can go a long way toward determining its fate – perhaps for years to come. If you hit a couple of picks well, you can launch your team to great heights. On the flip side, if you miss badly on some high picks, you can set your team back for years.
Recently, the team over at PFF released their picks for the best draft picks of the decade at each selection slot, and it should come as no surprise to Minnesota Vikings fans to see that they have not one but two selections that have made the list.
The first and most obvious of the two is Justin Jefferson, who the team at PFF tabbed as the decade’s best pick at No. 22. Jefferson has been not only one of the best wide receivers in the league since the Vikings took him in the 2020 NFL draft, but he’s been an all-time-great receiver over that stretch.
In his four seasons with the Vikings, Jefferson has put himself at or near the top of the all-time receptions and yardage lists for a receiver in his first four seasons – despite missing several games last season to injury.
It doesn’t take long on the list to come upon the next Viking. In fact, the Vikings go back-to-back with the 2021 selection of offensive tackle Christian Darrisaw at No. 23. Not only did the Vikings go back-to-back on the list, they did so in back-to-back years. Darrisaw has quickly become one of the best offensive tackles in the league for the Vikings, putting up PFF grades of 80 or better in each of the past two seasons.
Like Jefferson, Darrisaw didn’t have competition for the title of “best 23rd overall pick.” Both will be key figures as the Vikings try to develop young quarterback J.J. McCarthy into their next “best pick of the decade.”
