5 biggest Vikings 2021 draft needs after first wave of free agency
By Nik Edlund
Guard
Guard is easily the biggest roster hole for the Vikings as the 2021 NFL Draft approaches and the team hasn’t done anything in free agency to lessen this need.
The recent release of Riley Reiff could put Minnesota’s current right guard, Ezra Cleveland at left tackle. If this happens, the Vikings’ current starters at their two guard spots would be Kyle Hinton and Dru Samia. That is a horrifying thought.
Hinton didn’t suit up for a single game last season and fans wish that Samia did the same. Instead, he played even worse than Pat Elflein, and he was thankfully relieved of his duties when he went down with an injury.
Minnesota is well aware of the need at this position, but instead of addressing it this offseason, they have sat on their laurels. They opted to fill a lesser need like cornerback instead of going after a premier interior blocker like Joe Thuney or Kevin Zeitler.
These two might have been too pricey anyway. But the fact that free agency is more than a week old and the Vikings haven’t made a move to fix this hole yet is disappointing.
There have been rumblings that the Vikings are interested in former Los Angeles Chargers guard Forrest Lamp. While he is still relatively young and he possesses upside, he has been injury-prone and below average during his time on the field in the NFL.
Like the safety position, Minnesota needs to add multiple guards to their roster this year. But what makes this the bigger, and greatest, need, is they don’t currently have an established starter at either spot. This is a need that, if it isn’t touched in free agency, could be addressed early and often in the 2021 NFL Draft.