The Minnesota Vikings have five selections in the 2023 NFL Draft. What are four positions they won’t be using them on?
The 2023 NFL Draft is just a few weeks away. The Minnesota Vikings have been filling needs in free agency and fleshing out their roster, but they still have plenty of holes to fill. Positions like wide receiver, cornerback, and defensive line have to be addressed in this draft.
The Vikings don’t have enough draft picks to adequately fill all those holes, so every pick will need to be used at a position of need. They won’t be able to afford to make any luxury selections, at least as it stands now.
There’s always a chance Minnesota general manager Kewsi Adofo-Mensah makes a few deals and is able to acquire some more choices. But for now, five picks are all the Vikings have.
With just those five choices, there are positions we can rule out. These positions have been adequately addressed by Minnesota in free agency or just have solid depth and starters carrying over from 2022.
Here are five positions the Vikings won’t be drafting in 2023.
Offensive Tackle
Offensive tackle was potentially going to be a position the Vikings could’ve used a mid-round draft choice on this year.
Minnesota could be without Brian O’Neill at the start of the 2023 season, and it was assumed that Oli Udoh could look to land a starting job with another team. A versatile player who could play both guard and tackle in a pinch was looking like a fairly strong need and one that could be addressed with a pick.
In a fairly surprising turn of events, Udoh re-signed with Minnesota. He played quite well in place of O’Neill at right tackle at the end of last season. Udoh should be able to hold down the position again if O’Neill has to miss the first couple of weeks of the 2023 season as he continues to heal from his Achilles injury.
The Vikings are already set at left tackle with Christian Darrisaw, and this season he’ll solidify himself as one of the best in the entire NFL. Behind Darrisaw, O’Neill, and Udoh, Minnesota also has Blake Brandel and Vederian Lowe on their roster. Brandel has been okay in the few times the team has needed him, and Lowe is still young with plenty of upside.
The Vikings simply have bigger needs on their depth chart, so the chances they draft an offensive tackle at any point in this year’s draft are very slim.
Tight End
There’s no way in the hell the Vikings will draft a tight end this year. It was shocking enough when they went out and signed Josh Oliver on the first day of free agency. That didn’t seem like a big enough need for a team with limited spending capabilities, but they went out and did it anyway.
In addition to signing Oliver, Minnesota also brought back Ben Ellefson. Their tight-end depth chart is suddenly crowded with T.J. Hockenson, Oliver, Ellefson, Johnny Mundt, and Nick Muse.
The Vikings do seem to have developed this sudden urge to be a running football team, but they already have too many bodies at tight end, and there’s a strong chance that two of the aforementioned names don’t even make the team’s final 53-man roster.
It’s a bit of a shame Minnesota is already well-off at the tight-end position. This is a very deep and talented tight end class, and a solid player should be able to be found well into Day 3 of the draft.
The Vikings are already five deep at the position though, so unless Kwesi Adofo-Mensah pulls a Rick Spielman and just starts trading down like crazy, and Minnesota ends up with four seventh-round picks, the only chance a new name is thrown into the mix will be if it is an undrafted free agent.
Safety
The chances of the Vikings drafting a pure safety in 2023 are very slim. They could take a versatile cornerback/safety like Brian Branch, but drafting a player who is strictly seen as a safety isn’t going to happen.
Minnesota’s depth at the position is already strong. Harrison Smith restructured his contract to finish his career where it began, so he’ll be back as a starter.
Last year’s first-round pick Lewis Cine is expected to be ready to go, and he’ll be hungry to prove himself. Minnesota also has Cam Bynum returning, he was a starter last year, and then Josh Metellus fleshes out the depth, and he played very well when pressed into duty in 2022.
In a normal year when the Vikings have all seven of their picks, they could’ve looked to grab a safety. Smith won’t be around forever, and Metellus will be a free agent at the end of the season.
For 2023, this is a position that the team is probably one of the deepest at. They don’t have to address it in this year’s draft, and that’s a good thing because, with only five choices in their pockets, they won’t be able to afford to.
Running Back
As of right now, there’s no way the Vikings draft another running back. They are very deep at the position, but that could all change if they end up trading Dalvin Cook. Until that happens though, this is a position that the team can’t use one of its few choices on.
Just a few months ago, it was assumed Minnesota would draft a running back in 2023. Cook was expected to be dealt, and Alexander Mattison signing with another team looked like a sure thing. But here we are just a few weeks away from draft day, Cook is still with the team, and Mattison has been re-signed.
In addition to those two, the Vikings have Kene Nwangwu and Ty Chandler itching for touches. They also brought back C..J Ham, who can be an emergency back when everyone else goes down. There’s just no way the Vikings can use one of their few picks on a position that looks to have a log jam of talent.
Obviously, if Cook is dealt prior to the draft, this changes a bit. Even so, the chances the team actually draft a back would remain slim. They could, however, bring in one after the draft and even have met with some prospects who are expected to be available after all the names are called.