Minnesota Vikings GM Rick Spielman tends to repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over again in the NFL Draft.
Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman is coming off an excellent draft for the team. He found a superstar wide receiver, a couple of starting cornerbacks, a starting right guard who could potentially be the future left tackle, and a promising young edge rusher.
This is actually his second straight solid draft and he should be given props for adding the amount of talent to the Vikings‘ roster that he has the last couple of seasons. Despite the recent success, Spielman does have some habits he falls into on draft day that he could stand to change.
These habits tend to resurface in some form every single draft, and while he doesn’t always commit the same ones from year to year, he definitely has certain beliefs and approaches that he prefers.
Looking back at these habits, one can see that Spielman would’ve been better off going with a different strategy, as it would’ve netted him a better or more helpful player for the Vikings. Here are five draft day habits that Rick Spielman needs to break in 2021.
Too much trading down
Rick Spielman tends to get trade happy during the draft, and sometimes it pays off, but other times it doesn’t. The Vikings were wise to move down in the first round in last year’s draft. They already landed Justin Jefferson and knew they wanted a cornerback next. Knowing that they would see similar value at the position at 25 as they would a few slots down the board, they swung a deal with the 49ers and moved down to the 31st pick.
That was a smart choice, but Spielman tends to get too trade happy in the middle rounds. In the last couple of years, especially in the third round, Spielman gets nutty and swings deals just about every time the Vikings were on the clock. He did it in 2019, where he moved down multiple times in the third round until finally selecting Alexander Mattison with the last choice of day 2.
In 2020, Spielman took Cameron Dantzler with his first third-round choice but then moved out of the round completely after swinging a deal with the Saints. Spielman often prefers quantity over quality and this has bitten him in the backside a few times.
While Alexander Mattison has been a productive backup to Dalvin Cook, the team could’ve ended up with players like Nate Davis, Damien Harris, and Myles Boykin. Last season the team opted for multiple choices instead of taking an offensive lineman like John Simpson or Ben Bartch, who could’ve competed for a starting job. Sometimes Spielman gets too cute with his trades and it is to the detriment of his team.
Waiting too long to address key needs
Obviously, a team can’t address every single need in a given draft. Choices have to be made as to what position to address when and when it comes time to hit that next need, sometimes there simply isn’t value on the board, and a team goes in a different direction.
While that is to be understood, Rick Spielman has in the past ignored addressing needs when given the chance, instead opting to move down or go with a sexier position. Last year is a glaring example of this. The Vikings had some major needs as the draft approached. They needed to find a wide receiver to help replace the loss of Stefon Diggs, needed to add some talent to their secondary at both cornerback and safety, and had to find a solution at both guard positions after cutting their best player there in Josh Kline.
While the team did well fixing the holes at wide receiver and corner, Spielman shockingly left safety and guard basically untouched. He didn’t draft a safety until his last pick of round six and didn’t take a guard until his very last choice in the entire draft, choosing a small school prospect at the ass end of the seventh round. Spielman was lucky his gamble didn’t come back to bite him when it came to safeties as both Harrison Smith and Anthony Harris stayed healthy all season, but he set his team up for failure by not taking a guard.
He passed on players like John Simpson, Solomon Kindley, Damien Lewis, and Michael Omenwu, who all had solid seasons for their respective teams. This odd decision to not address a major issue put Kirk Cousins’ health at risk, but he proved to be extremely durable behind that shoddy interior protection.
Not drafting any Golden Gophers
Rick Spielman has been with the Vikings for a long time. He was named vice president of player personnel in May of 2006 before becoming the official general manager in 2012. Spielman has only drafted one Minnesota Golden Gopher in that span, and that is something that needs to change.
It truly is bizarre that the Vikings don’t nab talent from their own backyard. It wouldn’t take much to send a scout over to TCF Bank Stadium to watch a game and take intensive notes on these players. The scouts could even meet them after games and form personal relationships with these prospects getting to know exactly what makes them tick. The fact that Minnesota has been churning out quality players like Winfield and Tyler Johnson should alert the team that this new regime in town will produce solid NFL talent.
It almost seems like Spielman is intentionally avoiding Minnesota players. In 2019, he had plenty of chances to take linebacker Blake Cashman. This guy was seen as an aggressive linebacker who could push for playing time in year one and be a special teams standout. Instead of taking him, they kept trading down until he was eventually taken by the Jets. The Vikings then took Cameron Smith, who was cut by the team multiple times even before his medical issues. Cashman has played well for the Jets when healthy and would’ve been a much better choice.
Perhaps Spielman was so upset by the last Gopher he took in Nate Triplett that he’s sworn he won’t make that mistake again. Or maybe he feels like he’d be labeled a “homer” if he took Gophers on a consistent basis. Whatever the reason, Spielman needs to get over it and start drafting players from the University of Minnesota because they are proving to be good ones.
Not taking a mid-round quarterback
Rick Spielman does many great things for the Minnesota Vikings when it comes to the draft, but one thing he hasn’t done well is picking a quarterback. He’s missed on Christian Ponder and Teddy Bridgewater, and other than those two, he hasn’t used a pick higher than the fifth round on the position.
This is a trend that Spielman needs to break this year. The Vikings need an upgrade at backup quarterback and one who holds some growth potential. It would be refreshing to have that backup be someone who can be an upgrade from Sean Mannion from a talent standpoint and be developed with the hope that one day he can start games for the ball club.
There are plenty of mid-round quarterbacks the Vikings could look at in this year’s draft who would fit that mold. Kyle Trask, Kellen Mond, and Jamie Newman are just a few. These players will definitely come in raw as an uncooked hot dog, but they have plenty of upside. With Kirk Cousins proving to be extremely durable, they could learn behind him for a season or two before eventually competing to become the starter.
Not trading up enough
We often see slick Rick trade plenty on draft day. He’s always swinging deals and acquiring additional draft picks, but we rarely see him package those picks together and move up for a player. He has only done this a couple of times in recent memory. Spielman traded back into the first round in 2012 to land Harrison Smith. He did it again a few years later when he moved to the end of the first round to get quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
These types of moves are bittersweet for draft lovers. It obviously takes a pick or two away from the team, making future rounds less exciting to watch. Still, it does give the team a player they covet and believe can help them out immediately or be groomed into a long-term fix at a given position.
We barely ever see Rick trade up in any round after the first. This guy loves to stock up on late-round picks and, as stated above, seems to believe in quantity over quality. That is something that Spielman needs to change for this April’s draft. If there is a player who the team definitely feels will fix a certain position, he shouldn’t be shy about moving up to get him.
A great situation for this would be in round 2 this year. The Vikings don’t have a second-round choice after dealing Yannick Ngakoue to the Jaguars. If they go defensive line in the first round, as many believe, and say a top-flight guard like Wyatt Davis is still available in the late 40 range, the Vikings should be making a phone call.
They have two third-round picks and three fourth-round choices. It should only take a few of those to slide up and get a guy who could potentially be a decade-long starter for the team.
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Doing that would make those later rounds less fun, but landing that type of player instead of a handful of guys who are long shots to have an impact would be a welcomed change.