The Worst Defensive Drafting Team of the Past Eight Years?
Apr 6, 2024 7:27:39 GMT -6
Funkytown, Danchat, and 5 more like this
Post by whoskmoon on Apr 6, 2024 7:27:39 GMT -6
Back in 2015, the Vikings had arguably their best draft in the modern era, selecting borderline Hall of Fame players in Danielle Hunter and Stephon Diggs, a great MLB in Eric Kendricks, and a quality CB in Trae Waynes. They spent picks in rounds one through three of that year on defense and hit on all three, with their only defensive pick missing being Edmon Robinson in the 7th. It was a great draft that transformed the defense into something very special for the next five seasons, and it is a good thing it was so good defensively, because the next eight drafts have absolutely sucked when it came to selecting quality defensive players.
Just how bad have the past eight drafts been on defense? Take a look at the poll with the best defensive players selected in the past eight drafts and that should be all you need to know. Four of the best defensive players taken were safeties, with two playing most of their snaps on other teams and while safety isn't the least important position on the team, it is a position where a player has to be elite at, or absolutely terrible at, to make a significant impact on the defense.
So why has the defensive drafting been so bad? Some of it has been poor decisions in the draft, but that isn't the biggest issue. No, the biggest issue is how few quality picks the team has spent on defensive side of the football. Since 2016, the Vikings have spent five picks in the first two rounds on defense, with four spent on CBs, one spent on a safety. Contrast that with the offense, where the Vikings have selected ten offensive players in the first two round since 2016, and it becomes pretty obvious why the Vikings are constantly spending the most in free agency on defense. Heck the Vikings have selected five players in the top 23 alone on offense. The highest player drafted on the defense was 30th overall (Mike Hughes), and even if the Vikings had picked the best defensive player selected around where they selected the busts/mediocre players they actually selected, things wouldn't have gone much better:
2016: After the Vikings drafted Mack Alexander, the next three defensive players drafted were Sean Davis, TJ Green and Cyrus Jones. Jones and Green never even came close to matching what Mack did and Davis ended up being converted to safety where he was bad for three seasons before injuries cut his career short.
2017: None selected in the first two rounds
2018: After selecting Mike Hughes, there were ten picks made before another defensive player was selected. Harold Landry, who was selected 11 spots lower than Hughes, would have made a difference with the Vikings.
2019: None selected in the first two rounds
2020: After selecting Jeff Gladney, the next four defensive players selected were Xavier McKinney, Kyle Dugger, Yetur Gross-Matos and Ross Blacklock. The Vikings could have drafted Antoine Winfield with this pick and improved their defense, but safety really hasn't been an issue on this team. The other option of course would have been to just stand pat instead of trading down and selecting Patrick Queen.
2021: None selected.
2022: The Vikings should have just drafted Kyle Hamilton or Trent McDuffie instead of trading down and selecting Cine and Booth. Outside of that, there weren't any great players around where Booth or Cine were selected that the Vikings missed out on.
Looking back at these eight drafts the biggest issue appears to be trading back when they should have just selected the best defensive player available, or not taking a defensive player at all. Where the Vikings ended up selecting a defensive player the odds were very good they weren't going to get a stud anyway, outside of 2018 when Landry could have been a great pick.
Fast forward to 2024 and there is about a 90% chance the Vikings do not select defense until the 4th round, and even in that round the most likely pick an interior offensive lineman first, waiting until pick 129 to even begin thinking about the defense. Even worse than that, if the Vikings end up trading away next year's 1st to move up, they will have gone ten drafts without selecting a quality defensive player in the first two rounds. Let us all hope it doesn't come to that, and in 2025 when the Vikings are selecting 32nd, they can finally make a selection that helps the defense in the first two rounds, nine years after the last time they managed it.
Just how bad have the past eight drafts been on defense? Take a look at the poll with the best defensive players selected in the past eight drafts and that should be all you need to know. Four of the best defensive players taken were safeties, with two playing most of their snaps on other teams and while safety isn't the least important position on the team, it is a position where a player has to be elite at, or absolutely terrible at, to make a significant impact on the defense.
So why has the defensive drafting been so bad? Some of it has been poor decisions in the draft, but that isn't the biggest issue. No, the biggest issue is how few quality picks the team has spent on defensive side of the football. Since 2016, the Vikings have spent five picks in the first two rounds on defense, with four spent on CBs, one spent on a safety. Contrast that with the offense, where the Vikings have selected ten offensive players in the first two round since 2016, and it becomes pretty obvious why the Vikings are constantly spending the most in free agency on defense. Heck the Vikings have selected five players in the top 23 alone on offense. The highest player drafted on the defense was 30th overall (Mike Hughes), and even if the Vikings had picked the best defensive player selected around where they selected the busts/mediocre players they actually selected, things wouldn't have gone much better:
2016: After the Vikings drafted Mack Alexander, the next three defensive players drafted were Sean Davis, TJ Green and Cyrus Jones. Jones and Green never even came close to matching what Mack did and Davis ended up being converted to safety where he was bad for three seasons before injuries cut his career short.
2017: None selected in the first two rounds
2018: After selecting Mike Hughes, there were ten picks made before another defensive player was selected. Harold Landry, who was selected 11 spots lower than Hughes, would have made a difference with the Vikings.
2019: None selected in the first two rounds
2020: After selecting Jeff Gladney, the next four defensive players selected were Xavier McKinney, Kyle Dugger, Yetur Gross-Matos and Ross Blacklock. The Vikings could have drafted Antoine Winfield with this pick and improved their defense, but safety really hasn't been an issue on this team. The other option of course would have been to just stand pat instead of trading down and selecting Patrick Queen.
2021: None selected.
2022: The Vikings should have just drafted Kyle Hamilton or Trent McDuffie instead of trading down and selecting Cine and Booth. Outside of that, there weren't any great players around where Booth or Cine were selected that the Vikings missed out on.
Looking back at these eight drafts the biggest issue appears to be trading back when they should have just selected the best defensive player available, or not taking a defensive player at all. Where the Vikings ended up selecting a defensive player the odds were very good they weren't going to get a stud anyway, outside of 2018 when Landry could have been a great pick.
Fast forward to 2024 and there is about a 90% chance the Vikings do not select defense until the 4th round, and even in that round the most likely pick an interior offensive lineman first, waiting until pick 129 to even begin thinking about the defense. Even worse than that, if the Vikings end up trading away next year's 1st to move up, they will have gone ten drafts without selecting a quality defensive player in the first two rounds. Let us all hope it doesn't come to that, and in 2025 when the Vikings are selecting 32nd, they can finally make a selection that helps the defense in the first two rounds, nine years after the last time they managed it.
... and neither is this Chris guy.