Vikings Draft 2019: Third-round options for each position of need

Gerald Willis – DT (Miami)

Willis is an interesting prospect. First off, he’s had some not so great incidents in his college career. He started out in Florida before supposedly getting in a fight with his quarterback. He then transferred to Miami and ended up taking a leave of absence to work on some personal issues.  Since then he hasn’t had any off-the-field transgressions and he has been a model teammate.

The second reason Willis is so interesting is that he’s a boom or bust kind of rusher. Either this guy is going to be in the backfield blowing up plays or he’s going to get double teamed and be pushed back into the secondary. He’s the ultimate crapshoot player.

The Vikings need a penetrator in the middle who can cause a ruckus and disrupt the timing of the opposing team’s offense. This will be the major area Minnesota will miss from Sheldon Richardson’s game. Willis has the ability to replace what the team lost from Richardson’s departure, he just needs to be more consistent.

There may not be a better situation in the league for Willis to become more consistent than with the Vikings. He can get mentored by Linval Joseph, Everson Griffen, Anthony Barr, and Harrison Smith, not to mention head coach Mike Zimmer.

Being around those guys should inspire Willis to produce on every single play. If he ends up doing that, Minnesota could have themselves a long-time starter and quite the steal.