5 best Vikings first-round picks of the Rick Spielman era

Xavier Rhodes (2013)

In 2013, Spielman had three first-round draft picks in which he used the 25th overall pick to select Florida State’s cornerback Xavier Rhodes.

It took a bit for Rhodes to really get going and get used to playing at an NFL level. He started just six games his rookie year, and his first three years were sub-par of what was expected from the first round pick.

The tides would turn as in his fourth year is when things really took off for him. He appeared and started in 14 games and had a whopping five interceptions, one of which he took for what is still the only touchdown of his career.

He ended up making the Pro Bowl in 2016 and was awarded as a First-Team All-Pro in 2017. That was really the start of him being recognized as a shutdown corner in the NFL and became a menace for opposing quarterbacks as they continually had to gameplan for him.