4 common draft tendencies the Vikings should avoid in 2022

Devaluating because of character concerns

Obviously, if a player has a criminal history or has some domestic violence issues in his past, he should not be taken in the draft. Here, I’m talking about some minor character flags that tend to make very talented players fall down the board once the draft starts.

We’ve seen it many times in the past. Just a few years ago, Laremy Tunsil was the victim of this. Tunsil was seen as a top-three pick, but after the draft started, some pics surfaced and were posted on social media of him smoking marijuana with a gas mask on. This caused him to fall to the 13th overall pick costing him a lot of money in the process. He’s gone on to become one of the better tackles in the league, just like he was projected.

We’ve also seen this with players like Tyrann Mathieu and even Dalvin Cook. Rumors surface prior to the draft, and these players end up going much later than they should. Teams, and the Vikings especially, need to remember that these players are kids, and they’ll make dumb mistakes, whether that is taking pics of partying underage or tweeting dumb things out during their teenage years.

In some cases, this should hurt the player, but don’t take a Sam Darnold over a Josh Allen because of some dumb tweets he made in 10th grade.