Grading the Minnesota Vikings 2021 rookie class after year one

The 2021 season mercifully came to an end for the Minnesota Vikings. Now it’s time to grade their draft class on their year one performance.

The Minnesota Vikings 2021 season is but a fleeting memory. They were wildly disappointing and their final 8-9 record brought an end to the Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman era.

With the season being over it is time to take a look back and grade different aspects of the team. One area that needs to be evaluated is the performance of Spielman’s final draft class.

It can be argued that grading a draft class after one season is a futile exercise. That does have some merit to it, but we also have to adjust our grading scale when looking at a one-year performance of rookies.

Not every rookie is going to have an instant impact like a Justin Jefferson, and obviously one isn’t holding a fifth-round pick to the same standards of a first-rounder. That will be taken into account in the final year one evaluation of this group.

We always look at it from a performance standpoint first and then can factor in the future impact we believe the young player can still have for the Purple.

The Vikings 2021 draft class is a little unique because many picks were taken for the future thinking the team already had solid veteran depth across the board. That proved to be incorrect and after a slow start, the Vikings did have to rely on some of these young players.

Here’s how the grade of this class shakes out after looking at every pick and the impact or lack-there-of that they had in year one.