First Round (No. 12 overall)
Andrew Booth Jr. – CB (Clemson)
The Vikings and taking corners in the first round have become a running joke in the NFL over the last several years as the team has taken multiple swings on first-round corners and missed on most of them.
For the longest time, Mike Zimmer was seen as a great developer of cornerbacks and would pull the trigger on influencing a pick for one any chance he got. With Zimmer now gone, some fans might rejoice at finally not having to think of taking a cornerback early in the 2022 NFL Draft. Unfortunately, the secondary for Minnesota is currently a gigantic question mark.
Andrew Booth is regarded by many as a top two or three corner in this draft class next to Derek Stingley and Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. Booth possesses a lot of high-quality traits that are needed to become a premier NFL starting corner.
He has great ball skills and tracking ability of the football as he has shown to win a lot of battles with receivers at the catch point. Booth also has a great combination of speed and strength; he isn’t afraid to get physical at the line of scrimmage and play rough, but also has the burst and athletic ability to keep up with just about anybody.
Looking at Minnesota for 2022, the corner room is a little scarce. Both Patrick Peterson, who is getting up there in age, and nickel man Mackensie Alexander are pending free agents. Cameron Dantzler, although he has shown flashes at times, has been the definition of inconsistency in his first two years, and both Kris Boyd and Harrison Hand have not shown much in the times they have been on the field either.
Bringing an athletic playmaker like Booth to be a boundary corner for this team would go a long way to help solve the back end in the long term as they lack anybody who has shown they can be a shutdown corner on the outside for the foreseeable future.
Other players that could be available: David Ojabo – EDGE (Michigan), Tyler Linderbaum – IOL (Iowa), Ahmad Gardner -CB (Cincinnati), Kaiir Elam -CB (Florida)