Minnesota Vikings: Should they trade up to get their receiver?

The Minnesota Vikings may have to trade up in the draft if they want to guarantee getting the receiver they need.

Receiver is the top need for the Vikings this year, as even the most cursory glance at their depth chart should tell you. The good news is that there are several solid young receiving prospects who will be available in the middle of the first round where the Vikings are picking. The bad news is that the Vikings aren’t the only team in the NFL that needs a receiver.

Because the Vikes aren’t the only team that needs a receiver, there’s no guarantee that the receiver they really want will be there at 23. That begs the question: Should Minnesota trade up to make sure they get the guy they want, assuming they have identified one receiver who rocks their world more than the others?

Alarm bells went off for me when checking out the latest Todd McShay mock draft, a so-called “grade A” draft where instead of guessing what teams will do, McShay puts on his general manager hat and makes picks based on what he thinks teams should do. Uber-GM McShay has a lot of teams ahead of the Vikings needing a receiver.

In McShay’s mock, Laquon Treadwell goes to the Rams at 15 and Josh Doctson goes to the Houston Texans at 22. That leaves the Vikings taking Notre Dame WR Will Fuller.

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It’s perfectly possible that the Vikings would be happy drafting Will Fuller, a speedster with a bad tendency to drop passes. It’s also possible the Vikings would be happy with Corey Coleman, a smallish but very fast receiver who also has occasional problems hauling in passes. Maybe the Vikes would be content drafting Ohio State WR Michael Thomas, a guy with a nice all-around skill-set who probably needs a year to polish his technique.

But what if the Vikings aren’t happy with the prospect of drafting Coleman or Fuller or Thomas or any other receiver in this field? There is good reason to value Treadwell and Doctson above those other players. What if the Vikings have Doctson and/or Treadwell significantly higher on their board than any of the other wide-outs?

As McShay’s mock and other mocks clearly demonstrate, there are several teams picking ahead of the Vikings who have big needs at receiver. The Texans especially should be in the market for a wide-out considering all the money they just gave Brock Osweiler. To me, if you’re Rick Spielman and you covet one particular receiver above the others, you have to be sweating just a little bit.

Spielman of course is not shy about making a trade if there’s somebody he really likes and he fears he might miss out. A few years back he traded a big chunk of the draft to New England for the privilege of drafting Cordarrelle Patterson. That move hasn’t worked out as the Vikings hoped but at the time Spielman was rightly praised for being willing to roll the dice.

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This year Spielman might be warming up his dice-throwing hand again. If the Vikings really love Treadwell or Doctson, or any other specific receiver, they might have to at least trade ahead of Houston in order to guarantee they get their man. If they’re content with a second or third choice at #23, then of course they should stay put.

And what if the Vikings do like a certain receiver and aren’t able to get that player and aren’t really all that high on their other options? They could always try to trade down. Or they could go BPA at #23. If they make the #23 pick based strictly on need with no consideration for value, the pick will be a receiver. And it might not be the receiver they really want.

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