Round 3, Pick #86 - OG Wyatt Davis

Since Steve Hutchinson left the team after the 2011 season, the Vikings have been looking for a truly great interior guard. Over the course of their history, the purple and gold have had their fair share of great interior players. From Ed White to Randall McDaniel to David Dixon, there have been some really good and even hall of fame level players at the position. Once Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer took over, the position became somewhat of an afterthought.

To an extent, I agree with Spielman and Zimmer. I subscribe to the belief that guards don’t matter. What does that mean? Guards don’t matter is a philosophy where you don’t spend premium draft capital on a guard unless they are a transcendent player. The best example of that is Quenton Nelson, a player whose presence is not only intimidating to the defense, but also lifts the play of those around him. The Vikings have also subscribed to this method, but mainly using solely day 3 picks. When it comes to interior players, the sweet spot for them is with a day 2 selection.

This past October, I wrote about how to prioritize the guard position and what I found is that 6/10 highest paid guards were day 2 selections. Does that tell the whole story? I think it’s fair to say that it doesn’t, but it does give a good snapshot of where a good portion of the talent comes from. The Vikings agreed with my philosophy with the selection of Wyatt Davis at pick 86.

The number one guard recruit in the 2017 class, Wyatt Davis attended St. John Bosco High School and won a state championship his senior year. He even protected for future first round pick Josh Rosen during his high school career. Once he got onto campus, Davis redshirted his freshman season and followed up by playing in 36 games with 24 starts. Although he has a track record of good play, there is a slight injury concern. He injured his knee at the end of 2019 and re-injured it against Clemson in the college football playoff. Before the injury seemed to hurt his play this past season, there was some first-round hype surrounding Davis. What about his play warranted the hype? Let’s dive into his film.