What Happens If the Vikings Only Draft The Best Player Available?

The Minnesota Vikings are entering an especially pivotal draft. There is urgency to return to the playoffs after signing Kyler Murray, and most of the team’s best players are getting older.

One reason for the glut of aging players is the Vikings’ recent draft misses. Busts such as Lewis Cine, Andrew Booth Jr., Brian Asamoah, and Tai Felton have forced Minnesota to acquire older veterans through free agency or trades. In turn, those forced panic moves, such as acquiring Adam Thielen before the 2025 season, cost the team draft capital.

Two months ago, I ran a mock draft in which the Vikings selected players solely based on their spot on the Mock Draft Database Consensus Big Board. So at pick 18, they would have taken Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq, who ranked 18th on the Consensus Big Board.

The idea was to avoid overthinking the pick and instead take the best player available. Afterward, we would see how many needs were filled without actively pursuing individual positions.

This blind approach filled some of the team’s biggest holes. The selection of Sadiq may not have filled an immediate need, but the Vikings have since altered T.J. Hockenson’s contract, making him a free agent after the 2026 season.

In the second round, Minnesota took Indiana wideout Omar Cooper Jr. At pick 97, the Vikings selected Arizona cornerback Treydan Stukes.

However, the blind approach also led to inevitable quirks. At pick 82, Minnesota took Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers, while Penn State edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton was still available. No linemen were taken on either side of the ball in the nine overall selections.

This time, I’m going to be using Pro Football & Sports Network’s Industry Consensus Big Board. It consists of rankings from PFSN, Bleacher Report, CBS, ESPN, PFF, The Athletic, and Daniel Jeremiah.

To avoid the obvious quirks, I’m going to take into account the players placed within two spots of Minnesota’s original pick. So pick 49 would take into account players ranked 49 through 51 on the Consensus Big Board, moving to the 50th-ranked player if there was an unrealistic selection quirk.

The draft works out this way:

For the sake of this exercise, I did my best not to give myself too much room to deviate from “best player available.” Pick 18 was easy because Terrell is one of the players most frequently projected to go to Minnesota. Cornerback depth was an issue last season, and Terrell could provide an immediate impact in Brian Flores’ defense.

The Day 2 selections made me rethink how many players should be in play at each selection. Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price, ranked 50th on the board, was available at pick 49. But WR3 is a need for the Vikings. Passing on Bernard for Price could create chaos in an exercise meant to take the overthinking out of the selections.

Of course, pick 82 presented another receiver in Hurst. I was tempted to move on to the next available option. However, another cornerback, Florida’s Devin Moore, was the 83rd-ranked prospect. If I chose him, I’d be doubling up on a position anyway.

So, I went back and had the Vikings take Hurst, giving them two receivers. Minnesota doesn’t have any proven receivers on its depth chart beyond Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. They run three-receiver sets all the time, so is it realistic to assume the room is set after taking Bernard at pick 49?

Then came the second pick of the third round. Another receiver, UConn’s Skyler Bell, was the 97th-overall prospect on the big board. Here I had to use some nuance, since the Vikings wouldn’t take three receivers in consecutive picks on Day 3… right?

The 98th-ranked player happened to be another cornerback, though. But this is another position where teams carry lots of players, and only Byron Murphy Jr. (1,045) and Isaiah Rodgers (963) played over 200 defensive snaps at cornerback for the Vikings in 2025.

I was tempted to give myself a five-slot buffer, allowing me to take Florida center Jake Slaughter (ranked 101st). But that would require bypassing Texas tight end Jack Endries (ranked 99th), another position of need for the Vikings.

So, I took Neal and reevaluated my decision to do this entire mock draft, but here we are. The next four selections all addressed positions of need with their corresponding spots on the big board.

Then came the final selection, with Tennessee tight end Miles Kitselman ranked 244. With a tight end already selected, I moved to the next spot, where Wisconsin receiver Vinny Anthony II sat. I bypassed both, although maybe a flier on a repeat position near the end of the draft isn’t out of the question.

However, I ultimately had the Vikings take Boston College guard Logan Taylor, who was ranked 246th. It felt weird to have only one lineman taken, and it still fell within my two-man buffer.

Giving myself even slight flexibility in this exercise made it harder than blindly taking players as I did two months ago. I addressed multiple needs, but I didn’t take any defensive linemen or edge rushers, even after expanding my search. Center wasn’t addressed either, and it would have required me to contradict my self-imposed rules to acquire one in Round 3.

Every year, we hear how teams need to seek the best player available in the draft. But is that actually realistic? After doing this exercise and giving myself a little room to maneuver, I was still left with unaddressed needs across the roster.

However, we’ve seen what happens when the Vikings pick for need. When those players don’t pan out, the team is left with a roster hole anyway. And needs at cornerback, receiver, tight end, and running back were addressed in this exercise.

Minnesota has several holes to fill on its roster when the draft begins in three weeks. Many will be clamoring for the team to draft the “best player available.” They may need to be careful what they wish for.