15 biggest Minnesota Vikings draft busts of all-time
By Adam Patrick
5. Matt Kalil – OT
First Round (4th overall) – 2012
Like Treadwell, Kalil actually still has a job in the NFL. He’s currently with the Houston Texans, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll be on the team’s roster come the start of the 2019 season.
After the Vikings used a top-five pick on Kalil in the 2012 draft, the team was hoping that they had just found their starting left tackle for the next decade. And following his rookie year, the young Minnesota blocker seemed headed in this direction.
As part of the offensive line that helped Vikings running back Adrian Peterson rush for over 2,000 yards in 2012, Kalil earned an invitation to the Pro Bowl as a rookie. Minnesota likely figured that it was just the first of many Pro Bowl invites their young left tackle would receive during his NFL career.
But in his next four seasons with the Vikings, Kalil didn’t even sniff anything close to another Pro Bowl selection. Instead, he regressed into becoming one of the worst offensive linemen in the league.
His tenure in Minnesota eventually came to an end in 2017 following a season that saw him only appear in two games due to injury.
Kalil is one of six players to ever be drafted within the top five by the Vikings and the argument that he is the worst of the bunch is not a hard one to make.