The Draft
By:Ross Blilie
04-29-2023
April 27th has been circled on many people’s calendars as a special day. Everyone from NFL scouts, general managers, coaches, and college athletes to fans of the game of American football. The journalists of major news publications and networks such as the NFL Network and ESPN are excited to see how their predictions turn out.
Fans like myself are interested in who their favorite team is going to choose to help them win more games and potentially win the Super Bowl next season. In addition, fans and experts like to speculate which college athletes are going to which teams.
On Thursday April 27th, the annual NFL Draft was held in Kansas City, Missouri. My favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings had the 23rd overall pick on that night. Overall, the team had seven picks. In the first round, Minnesota chose WR Jordan Addison. They traded their second pick for a third round and ended up taking CB Mekhi Blackmon.
In my opinion, I initially didn't like the Addison pick. I thought the wide receiver group they had was decent. However, after looking into the group of players they have, Addison was a guy they actually needed to upgrade their group. With Thielen gone to Carolina, O'Connell needed to find someone with high potential to help Justin Jefferson. ESPN NFL analyst Bucky Brooks thinks that Addison was a great move by Kwesi, and that with the current trend of Rookie Wide Receivers being awarded Offensive Rookie Of The Year in the last two seasons, Addison could be a guy that has the potential to go out and win Offensive Rookie Of The Year.
My response to that is that I don't know enough about that particular player to be able to agree or disagree with Brooks. To be optimistic about it, sure it's possible, but Cousins has to have a really great season in order for that to happen and I'm not always a fan of Cousins on Sunday afternoons.
The other player that Kwesi drafted in the last couple days was CB Mekhi Blackmon. In my opinion, when I saw the pick being announced and scrawled on the bottom of the TV, I was like, "Oh, Okay; Going defense now. Interesting." Then when they started talking about how short he is compared to most prototypical wide receivers in the NFL and that he's an aggressive press-man coverage kind of player, that bothers me because I hate to see the defense get so many flags on easily preventable penalties. I'm pretty sure he won't play much in the upcoming season, but just knowing he has a bad habit of holding and getting pass interference calls concerns me.
In round four, the Vikings chose to add more depth to their Safety group by picking Jay Ward out of Louisiana State. My guess is that Kwesi was thinking about the future after Harrison Smith.
In round five, Minnesota had two picks. First, they took Nose Tackle Jaquelin Roy who also attended Louisiana State with Jay Ward. Second, they chose a QB from Brigham Young University, the alma mater of Steve Young. The player the Vikings chose was Jalen Hall. He scored well on his computer testing, but as we all know, it will come down to how he performs on the field.
The Vikings did not have a sixth round pick, but instead had one last pick in round seven. With that last pick, the Vikings chose Dewayne McBride, Running Back from the University of Alabama Birmingham. My guess is that he will be competing for a back up job behind Alexander Mattison. There's been lots of talk about how Dalvin Cook will not be on the roster next season.
Overall, in my opinion, I always think the Vikings do an okay job in the draft. They aren't usually flashy that I can remember. Their regular season record is usually pretty good until they make the playoffs and then they tend to crumble and lose. So what's going to be different this next season?
Ross Blilie is an avid NFL fan of the Minnesota Vikings since the 1990’s. He loves to talk about the NFL and the Vikings every chance he gets. His hobbies also include bowling with his wife and friends, narrating audiobooks, fishing, and even sitting by a campfire with family at Lake Blackduck in Minnesota. You can find Ross on twitter & Instagram @Rossthenarrator.
