Minnesota Vikings 2012 Draft Grades

Time to grade the Vikings’ 2012 draft.

On the actual picks themselves, I give them a grade of Who The Heck Knows? Get back to me in a couple years and I’ll grade it. If they win a Super Bowl in the next three years with 2012 draftees making a significant contribution? We’ll call it an A.

Here are five categories I am willing to grade the draft on.

Entertainment value:

Solid B. Most of that is for the first round. Lots of trades early, the suspense of the Matt Kalil pick, the later tension of wondering if they’d move back up into the first. As drafts go, it was pretty good TV. For awhile. Then it got boring like it always does.

Giving us reasons to question Rick Spielman:

Give it a B+. He didn’t poop the bed, let’s put it that way. But he did take a kicker. He did reach for a TE. He did wait until the seventh to go after linebacker and defensive line depth. He may not have needed to trade up for Harrison Smith. Plenty of grist there for those who wish to grind away.

Weird factor:

Only a B-. The weirdest thing was the doubling up of schools. The Vikings took two USC guys, two Arkansas guys and two Notre Dame guys. Makes it easier for guys to find roommates in camp I guess.

Poignant storylines:

Going with a B. Rhett Ellison cried when he heard he was picked. That’s nice. Greg Childs and Jarius Wright have been friends since third grade and got drafted together. That’s adorable.

Gutsiness:

Can only give it a C. You could say it was gutsy taking a kicker but you could just as easily say it was stupid taking a kicker. Gutsy would’ve been taking Alfonzo Dennard or Vontaze Burfict or Janoris Jenkins. But we knew the Vikings were never going to take any of those guys going in so it’s certainly not a surprise. They played it safe and that’s fine for a rebuilding franchise.

So overall I give this draft about a B. Again, not grading the picks. Cause nobody knows yet how these guys will pan out. Most people who “grade” drafts are simply whining about the guys they wanted not being taken. We have to keep an open mind about this stuff and hope these guys work out. If they don’t work out we can second-guess the crap out of people.

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