4 recent Vikings that didn’t live up to the hype during their tenure

Player No. 1

Kellen Mond - QB (2021 - 2022)

After the first three seasons with Kirk Cousins under center only resulted in a total of one playoff win for the franchise, the Vikings decided to invest a third-round pick on former Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Coming out of the draft, Mond was viewed by some as a rookie quarterback that had a ton of potential. NBC Sports Chris Simms even ranked him as the fourth-best signal-caller in the 2021 draft class, ahead of current Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields.

Well, it didn't take very long to figure out that Mond wasn't anything close to being Minnesota's quarterback of the future. In three exhibition games with the Vikings during the 2020 preseason, the young quarterback only completed 54.9 percent of his passes for 310 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception.

Mond also appeared in one regular-season contest in 2020 against the Green Bay Packers in Week 17, and it went terribly. He threw for just five yards on three pass attempts, and former Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer wanted nothing to do with him in the press conference after the game.

Some thought the Vikings replacing Zimmer with Kevin O'Connell as the team's head coach would give Mond a better chance to succeed. But things didn't go any better for Mond during Minnesota's 2022 training camp or preseason, and it resulted in the team deciding to move on from the young quarterback less than two years after they drafted him.