Former Vikings GM Weighs In on Team’s Draft

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images I say every April, after the NFL draft , that I think it’s ridiculous when so-called draft analysts in the media give grades to team drafts immediately afterward. The reality is that it takes at least two to three years to truly evaluate how a team did on draft day. Example A — Tom Brady as a sixth-round pick in 2000 when he was a skinny QB out of Michigan.

Example B — when the Chiefs traded their 27th overall pick and a third-rounder in 2017, plus their 2018 first-round pick, to move up to No. 10 overall and select Patrick Mahomes in a move that was considered risky for a “raw” prospect who played for Texas Tech in the then-no-defense Big 12. Then there’s Joe Montana and Russell Wilson as third-rounders turned top QBs and Super Bowl champs.

Jeff Diamond Sees Upside — and Risk — in Vikings Draft With 15 Super Bowl titles, 11 Super Bowl MVPs and 39 Pro Bowls between them, those picks turned out pretty, pretty good (as Larry David would say on Curb Your Enthusiasm) for the Patriots, Chiefs, 49ers and Seahawks. Their drafts would’ve been graded A+ a couple of years later just because they found their ultra-successful franchise quarterbacks. Closer to home, Fran Tarkenton was a third-round pick in 1961, and it was hard to predict he would lead the Vikings to three Super Bowls and become an NFL MVP, nine-time Pro Bowler, and Pro Football Hall of Famer.

If J. J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner turn into All-Pros who someday lead the Vikings to the promised land, we’ll give the 2024 draft an A+ for the Purple after they picked McCarthy and Turner in the first round.