Barring Trade, Vikings Sitting Out NFL Draft's First Round
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Minnesota Vikings are not exactly on the clock heading into Thursday's NFL Draft. Not when your first pick is in the second round.
The general manager offered some thoughts.
This week brings back memories for many of draft night.
"It was a crazy feeling. For me, I raised the bar for myself to be a first round pick. During draft week I actually stayed home," defensive end Datone Jones said.
What the Vikings don't see right now is trading up to get a pick in the high-profile first round.
"Well I think it's a pretty significant jump and pretty costly to go from where we're picking in the second round all the way back into the first," General Manager Rick Spielman said.
Teddy Bridgewater is back and working out, but hardly a sure thing going forward. So might there be a quarterback in the mid rounds?
"We'll treat the quarterback position just like we would any other position as we go down through the draft," Spielman said. "We spent time on a lot of those guys."
One other interesting now draft practice -- they assign staff to check the social media accounts of all potential picks. And at times, it's revealing.
"I have a report with pictures and everything of what they're posting on all their social media," Spielman said. "If it's something that's red-flagged, then we address it with them."
The one area the Vikings find most difficult to predict is offensive line. The theory at Winter Park is the game is so much different from college to professional that it takes a long time to develop and it's easy to be wrong. That's unfortunate for the Vikings, because that may be the position they have the greatest need.
The Vikings will join the party in the second round on Friday with the 48th overall pick, plus two third and fourth round selections as well.
