The NFL Draft is just three days away, and we are so close to seeing who the Minnesota Vikings will add to their roster in hopes of creating a Super Bowl caliber roster.
Getting there has been the most difficult part, as the process of identifying the players that fit the franchise from both a talent and scheme perspective.
How those players stack up is going to be different for everyone, which is why having a horizontal board is important.
Minnesota Vikings offensive horizontal NFL Draft board
It's important to understand how a horizontal board works. It's not exactly a 1:1 transition to what a traditional big board is. It accounts for ranking, team need, and scheme fit, whereas when most analysts build their big board, it's about raw overall ability in a vacuum.
That's how I approached this exercise, as I split it into two different boards: one for offense and one for defense. My board on offense will look different than how others will have theirs and it's based on how I view this class.
You can see how it compares here to my top 100 big board.
Let's take a look at some of the biggest takeaways from the board. The biggest is that I pushed down interior offensive linemen. I don't believe that it's the biggest need for what this team needs right now. This class should trend more towards adding impact players, and Blake Brandel is likely going to start the entire weekend.
Being that it's more about impact players this year, which was a theme of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's press conference on Thursday.
"We want to be in a place where we're proactive, not reactive," said Adofo-Mensah. "Impact focused, not need focused, and that's a credit to our stats, the vision and just the collaboration. We were able to put together a plan for where we're at so, with that.
"That's kind of what I mentioned in my opener. You have to earn the right to be the type of team, the type of organization that drafts for impact and not need. I think we're able to do that a lot in what we did in free agency and some of the things we've done the past couple years here to build to that place to your point."
On offense, the biggest impact positions for the Vikings are going to be at running back and wide receiver. The offensive line is in a great place and maximizing the quarterback position should be a priority.
The wide receiver position is in a great spot at the top, but having multiple players you can count on is important to maximizing your young quarterback's potential.
If you look at the top of the draft, two receivers fit the bill at 24 with the assumption you can't trade down: Arizona's Tetairoa McMillan and Ohio State's Emeka Egbuka. They would be an immediate improvement over Jalen Nailor and allow you to be a little more flexible with giving Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison an extra 2-5 plays off per game.
The other angle here is at running back. I do like this class a lot, especially how deep it is. Omarion Hampton and TreVeyon Henderson both received high grades (Hampton got a first round grade), but I would want to take them with a slight trade down, as the value is what I'm more comfortable with, as Hampton isn't a perfect scheme fit and Henderson's injury history is worrisome.
So, are those positions necessarily the best from a need perspective? Absolutely not, but a third wide receiver is almost certainly going to have the most "impact" quickly, which could very well be the focus.
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