The Minnesota Vikings have added some amazing players in the first round of the NFL Draft over the course of franchise history. Here are the 15 best!
Building a strong NFL franchise can be a massive challenge. A team like the Minnesota Vikings needs to not only acquire the best possible talent possible on their roster, but be able to use their players to the best of their ability and develop them within the team.
There is no surefire way to get the best players on your franchise. Spending a lot of money in free agency or using a top draft pick on a player is no guarantee that they will fit into the team’s system used or have similar production to what they had in previous years.
Still, there is always a lot of intrigue around the top college prospects each year. In particular, the first round of the NFL Draft is where players have the highest chance of being a success as a professional football player.
Let’s take a look at 15 of the best players who were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Vikings and rank them starting at No. 15, where a recent selection of the franchise resides!
Odds are that if this list was compiled only a few years later, Harrison Smith would be much higher. However, since being the 29th overall selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, he has been an impact player in the Vikings’ secondary.
Arriving in Minnesota from Notre Dame, Smith joined a defensive unit known for allowing a ton of yards and many points.
Putting the versatile safety in the position to make plays provided an immediate boost to the secondary that was only helped when he began playing under Mike Zimmer.
Entering the 2018 NFL season, Smith has already been a part of the Pro Bowl three times and was All-Pro First Team selection in 2017. He also won the Dwight Stephenson Award from Pro Football Focus for being their highest-graded player during the regular season.
Appearing on this list at only 29-years-old is an amazing accomplishment and shows how significant the presence of Smith has been for the team since his debut in 2012 and how it will be for many years going forward.
– Adam Carlson
Despite being one of three first-round selections by the Vikings in the 1967 NFL Draft, Gene Washington didn’t see too much of the field during his rookie season. He did average 29.5 yards per catch in 1967, but he only hauled in 13 passes that year.
Washington eventually found his role in Minnesota’s offense. It resulted in him earning an All-Pro First-Team selection and his first-career Pro Bowl invite in 1969 following a season that saw him finish with 39 catches for 821 yards and nine touchdowns.
The young receiver was voted to the Pro Bowl again in 1970 after he caught 44 passes for 702 yards and four scores.
He only ended up playing with the Vikings for six seasons from 1967 to 1972. During that time period he caught a total of 172 balls for 3,087 yards and 23 touchdowns. Washington spent his final year in the NFL with the Denver Broncos in 1973.
– Adam Patrick
Although Keith Millard was selected with the No. 13 overall pick in the 1984 NFL Draft, he didn’t begin playing for the Vikings until 1985. Instead, he first spent a year with the Los Angeles Dragons of the USFL.
When he eventually joined Minnesota for the 1985 season, Millard made an immediate impact by exploding for 11 sacks. He didn’t slow down any time after that either. He followed up that campaign with one which saw him finish with 10.5 sacks. Millard then had the biggest sack output of his career in 1989 when he notched 18 quarterback takedowns.
In addition to production, Millard gained plenty of recognition. He was a two-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro player, adding the 1989 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award to his résumé and winning UPI NFC Player of the Year.
He finished his career with 58 sacks in just 93 total games played and he even intercepted two passes from the middle of the defensive line. Had he not suffered a devastating knee injury in 1990, Millard likely would have continued to dominate opposing offensive linemen.
– AC
Drafted as the eventual replacement for the legendary Fran Tarkenton, expectations were high for Tommy Kramer. When he finally got a chance to start in 1979, his first season was a bit rocky to say the least (24 interceptions in 16 games).
But the Vikings stuck with the young quarterback and in his second full season as a starter, he helped lead the team to a first place finish in the division and a spot in the playoffs.
Kramer’s best season came in 1986 when he earned his first and only Pro Bowl invitation after throwing for 3,000 yards, 24 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions. The quarterback went on to start just 15 more games for Minnesota in the three years after.
In 13 seasons with the Vikings, Kramer completed 55.1 percent of his passes for 24,775 yards, 159 touchdowns, and 158 interceptions. He also ran for 531 yards and eight touchdowns.
– AP
It isn’t very often in the NFL that a player is able to spend their entire career with one franchise. Chad Greenway was able to accomplish that by spending 11 years with the Vikings before his retirement in 2017.
Chosen with the No. 17 overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft out of Iowa, Greenway immediately found a home in Minnesota’s defense. He provided a stable force in the defense, containing big plays and acting as a team leader.
Greenway ended his career second in franchise history in tackles, only 11 behind Carl Lee despite playing 13 fewer games. He also added 11 fumble recoveries, 11 interceptions, and two defensive touchdowns.
Named to the Pro Bowl twice and the All-Pro Second-Team once, Greenway was a hard-nosed player who could be trusted to stop opposing ball carriers, as he proved when he led the NFC in tackles in 2010.
– AC
After an impressive career at the University of Miami, the Vikings added Chuck Foreman to their offense in 1973. He immediately made an impact for Minnesota out on the field.
During his first season with the Vikings, the running back racked up a total of 801 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 182 carries. Foreman also finished that year with 37 catches for 362 yards and two more scores.
His impressive first season resulted in him earning an invite to the Pro Bowl and being named 1973’s AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. Foreman’s performance also played a tremendous part in Minnesota making it all the way to the Super Bowl in 1973.
The running back continued to perform well after his rookie season and was voted to the Pro Bowl in each of his first five years in the league. After a season in 1975 that saw him finish with 1,722 total yards and 22 touchdowns, Foreman earned his first and only All-Pro First-Team selection.
His 22 total touchdowns that year is still the most ever in a single-season in the history of the Vikings. In seven years with Minnesota from 1973 to 1979, Foreman ran for a total of 5,887 yards, caught 336 passes for 3,057 yards and scored 75 touchdowns.
– AP
The 2003 NFL Draft saw defensive tackle Kevin Williams land in Minnesota. The Oklahoma State defensive lineman was the ninth overall selection of the Vikings, and he made an immediate impact on the team’s defense.
Williams had an amazing rookie season, notching 10.5 sacks, 51 combined tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery. He earned a spot on the PFWA All-Rookie Team to reward him for his efforts.
Paired with Pat Williams, the duo quickly earned the nickname as the “Williams Wall” because of their dominance in the middle of the defensive line. In 11 years with Minnesota, Kevin Williams totaled 60 sacks, 331 total tackles, five interceptions, and two defensive touchdowns.
Accolades also came based on his play. Williams was named to the Pro Bowl six times and the All-Pro First-Team five times while being a part of the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team and one of the 50 Greatest Vikings.
– AC
Before Harrison Smith came around, Joey Browner was arguably the best safety to ever play on a Vikings defense. It wasn’t until his third season with Minnesota that he got the chance to be a full-time starter, but he definitely made the most of his increased time on the field once he got it.
Browner’s play led to him earning six straight trips to the Pro Bowl from 1985 to 1990. During that time, he also earned three All-Pro First-Team selections. His best season came in 1990 when finished third in the NFL with seven interceptions.
In his nine years with the Vikings, Browner picked off a total of 37 passes and ran three of them back for touchdowns. His career interceptions still rank as the fourth-most in Minnesota team history.
– AP
Selected by Minnesota with the No. 4 overall pick in the 1985 NFL Draft out of Pittsburgh, Chris Doleman started off as a tackling machine. During his rookie campaign, he had 113 combined tackles. But he also only registered 0.5 sacks in 13 starts.
It didn’t take long for the sacks to start flowing though. He registered double-digit sack numbers five times in his career with the Vikings, notching 21 quarterback takedowns during the 1989 season, which lead the league.
Over the course of his 15-year NFL career, Doleman had some impressive numbers, finishing with 975 combined tackles, 150.5 sacks, 44 forced fumbles, 24 fumble recoveries, eight interceptions and two defensive touchdowns.
Doleman’s accolades speak for themselves. Eight Pro Bowls, five All-Pro appearances, the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team and the Vikings Ring of Honor are all great achievements, but nothing compares to when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
– AC
An argument can easily be made that Adrian Peterson is the best running back to ever put on a Vikings uniform. Aside from his off-the-field issues, Peterson was the face of Minnesota teams in the late 2000s and established himself as one of the best to ever step foot on an NFL field.
It took very little time for the league to realize how good of a running back he was as he ran for 1,341 yards and 12 touchdowns in his very first season with the Vikings in 2007. That year, he also set the NFL’s single-game rushing record when he ran for 296 yards in a Week 9 win over the San Diego Chargers.
During eight of his first nine seasons with Minnesota, Peterson finished each year with at least 950 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, including the 2012 season that saw him end with a franchise record 2,097 yards on the ground.
In 10 years with the Vikings, Peterson was voted to the Pro Bowl seven times, was an All-Pro First-Team selection on four occasions, won the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 2007, and was named the NFL MVP in 2012.
His 11,747 career rushing yards with Minnesota are the most by any player in franchise history (by more than 4,900 yards).
– AP
The Vikings chose Randall McDaniel with the No. 19 overall pick in the 1988 NFL Draft out of Arizona State and ended up getting one of the best interior offensive linemen ever to play professional football.
With a background in track and field, McDaniel had an amazing amount of athleticism for a lineman. His ability to get down the field quickly to make extra blocks at the next level made him a huge asset in the run game and his ability to protect the quarterback made him one of the most versatile guards ever to suit up.
McDaniel spent 12 seasons in Minnesota before he was released in a move to save money against the salary cap. He then signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, playing for two seasons there before signing a one-day contract to retire a member of the Vikings.
Accolades of McDaniel’s include 12 Pro Bowl appearances, nine All-Pro First-Team nods, 11-time All-NFC, NFL 1990s All-Decade Team, and joining the Vikings Ring of Honor. But the biggest honor of his career had to be entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2013.
– AC
After playing his college ball at the University of Minnesota, Carl Eller didn’t have to travel very far to play in the NFL. The defensive end was also drafted by the AFL’s Buffalo Bills in 1964, but he opted to stay in the Twin Cities and play for the Vikings instead.
And was Minnesota sure glad he made that decision.
Eller ended up spending 15 years with the Vikings, where he was a part of the franchise’s most talented defensive line known as the “Purple People Eaters”. The ferocious pass-rusher only missed two games in his first 14 seasons with Minnesota.
Sacks were not a statistic that was regularly kept during the time Eller played in the league, but the Vikings do credit him as the franchise’s all-time career sack leader with 130. His play on the field led to the defensive end earning six invites to the Pro Bowl and five All-Pro First-Team selections from 1968 to 1974.
Eller was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
– AP
The first overall selection of the 1968 NFL Draft out of USC, Ron Yary won the right tackle position during his second season in Minnesota as a protector of quarterback Joe Kapp. He is the first-ever offensive lineman to be picked with the first pick in a draft.
In Yary’s rookie year, the Vikings made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and he was a key part of the 1969 NFL Championship team despite missing three games of the season due to a previous military commitment.
Proving to be one of the most solid and competitive players to ever put on a Vikings uniform, Yary missed only two games due to injury in his career, with both being because of a broken ankle.
He appeared in seven Pro Bowls, was a member of eight All-Pro teams, joined the Vikings Ring of Honor, was named to the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team, and was a part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2001.
– AC
Exploding out of the gate would be the polite way to describe the NFL’s introduction to Randy Moss in 1998. As a rookie, the young Vikings receiver finished with 69 catches for 1,313 yards and 17 touchdowns.
His 17 touchdown receptions in 1998 is still an NFL single-season rookie record.
Moss would go on to finish six of his first seven years in Minnesota with at least 65 catches, 1,200 receiving yards, and 10 touchdowns. No other receiver in league history has had more receiving yards in their first six seasons than Moss’ 8,375 from 1998 to 2003.
Five of the receiver’s six career Pro Bowl invites and three of his four career All-Pro First-Team selections came during the first seven years of his time in the NFL while he was with the Vikings.
Despite only playing a little more than half of his pro career in Minnesota, Moss still has the second-most touchdown catches, receiving yards and total receptions in team history.
Back in February, the former Vikings receiver became the latest to get voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Unlike Minnesota’s other first-round draft selections that are also in the Hall of Fame, Moss was selected during his very first appearance on the ballot.
– AP
Growing up and wanting to be a lawyer, Alan Page was too talented of an athlete and too hard-working on the field to not pursue an NFL career. Chosen with the No. 15 pick in the 1967 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame, the defensive lineman immediately got to work.
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Page spent 11 seasons and six games with the Vikings and was a key part of the “Purple People Eaters” defense before finishing the final four years of his career with the Chicago Bears. But he more than left a mark on the Vikings franchise.
Being the first-ever defensive player to be named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1971 is one heck of an accomplishment. As was him being awarded NFC Player of the Year that same year and NFL Defensive Player of the Year twice.
During his time in Minnesota, Page finished with 148.5 sacks, 28 blocked kicks, and 23 fumble recoveries.
His nine Pro Bowls, nine All-Pro nods, his induction into the Vikings Ring of Honor, and his jersey being retired by Minnesota also solidify his greatness on the football field. As does his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the class of 1999.
– AC
Next: The Vikings' greatest 7-round draft of all-time
Do you agree with this list of the Vikings’ best first-round draft picks of all time? Are there players you believe deserve to be higher or lower? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!