2021 Minnesota Vikings Draft Pick Summary

In addition to the players that the Minnesota Vikings select in a particular draft I’ve always found it interesting how those players were selected. In the 2021 NFL Draft, the Vikings made 16 transactions before and during the draft in landing 11 players. One of those “transactions” was forced upon them by the league as their seventh-round pick was yanked for a past shenanigans with the practice squad. All teams are assigned seven picks in each draft. Some teams are gifted more picks through the compensatory process. Many general managers use the picks that are assigned to them. Vikings general manager Rick Spielman isn’t one of them. He often uses his picks to gain more picks. After the first night of the 2021 NFL Draft, it looked like he was going to be using that strategy once again. This draft didn’t play out like recent Vikings drafts. 

2021 Minnesota Vikings Draft Pick Summary

Rd	Pick#/Overall#	Selection
1.(A)	14/14	No Choice. Traded to New York Jets in exchange for No. 23, 66, 86 overall picks
1.(B)	23/23	Christian Darrisaw, OT, Virginia Tech
2.(A)	13/45	No Choice. Traded to Jacksonville in exchange for Yannick Ngakoue
3.(A)	2/66	Kellen Mond, QB, Texas A&M. Choice from Jets in exchange for No. 14, 143 overall picks.
3.(B)	15/78	Chazz Surratt, LB, North Carolina
3.(C)	23/86	Wyatt Davis, OG, Ohio State. Choice from Seattle through Jets in exchange for No. 14, 143 overall picks.
3.(D)	27/90	Patrick Jones II, DE, Pittsburgh. Choice from Baltimore in exchange for DE Yannick Ngakoue.
4.(A)	14/119	Kene Nwangwu, RB, Iowa State
4.(B)	20/125	Camryn Bynum, S, California. Choice from Chicago in exchange for 2020 No. 155 overall pick.
4.(C)	29/134	Janarius Robinson, DE, Florida State. Choice from Buffalo in exchange for WR Stefon Diggs.
4.(D)	38/143	No Choice. Traded to Jets in exchange for No. 23, 66, 86 overall picks. (Compensatory)
5.(A)	13/157	Ihmir Smith-Marsette, WR, Iowa
5.(B)	24/168	Zach Davidson, TE, Central Missouri. Choice from Pittsburgh through Baltimore in exchange for 2020 No. 201 and 219 overall picks.
6.(A)	15/199	Jaylen Twyman, DT, Pittsburgh
6.(B)	39/223	No Choice. Traded to Arizona in exchange for OL Mason Cole.
7.(A)	14	No Choice. Selection forfeited.

***

Of the 11 player selections, the Vikings selected only four with a pick that was originally assigned to them.

Chazz Surratt

Kene Nwangwu

Ihmir Smith-Marsette 

Jaylen Twyman

The 2021 NFL Draft wasn’t the typical Rick Spielman draft. “Trader” Rick typically makes an abundance of trades during the draft. Some of his trades during the draft last year added three picks this year. He traded a second-round pick last August to the Jacksonville Jaguars for defensive end Yannick Ngakoue. Two months later he traded Ngakoue to the Baltimore Ravens for a third-round pick. So it cost a round to rent a pass rusher for two months. Spielman traded a sixth-round pick a couple months ago for Mason Cole. Trading was done prior to the draft but Spielman made one trade during the draft. One! That was the first-round trade with the Jets that brought the offensive line boost of Christian Darrisaw and Wyatt Davis and potential quarterback heir in Kellon Mond. Most fans and talking heads assumed that Spielman would use a couple of the seven picks in the third and fourth rounds to get into the second round. He didn’t do that. He held those seven mid-round picks. He used those picks to add seven players. I’m guessing that Mike Zimmer and his coaches were so tired of trading back and waiting that they confiscated Spielman’s phones and forced him to make the picks. A coach desperate for players probably doesn’t have the same draft-day patience of a pick-dealing general manager. 

All drafts have a story.