Ranking Rick Spielman’s draft classes as Vikings general manager

The Minnesota Vikings hired Rick Spielman as their vice president of player personnel in 2006. After leading draft preparations for the team for six seasons — and helping select a pair of Rookie of the Year winners in Adrian Peterson (2007) and Percy Harvin (2009) – Minnesota hired Spielman as its general manager in 2012, drifting away from the “Triangle of Authority.”

The 2020 draft was Spielman’s ninth as Minnesota’s general manager. How do they all stack up? We ranked them from worst to first (but did not include the 2020 class).

Key: Pro Bowl, All-Pro, never played for Vikings

8) 2016

WR Laquon Treadwell (1st), CB Mackensie Alexander (2nd), T Willie Beavers (4th), LB Kentrell Brothers (5th), WR Moritz Boehringer (6th), TE David Morgan (6th), DE Stephen Weatherly, S Jayron Kearse

Outlook: The Vikings needed a true No. 1 wide receiver for Teddy Bridgewater. Spielman thought he found his guy in Treadwell. The Mississippi product caught just one pass as a rookie and never was trusted with a big role in the offense, playing his final season with the organization in 2019. In retrospect, it’s not like the other three receivers taken in the first round — Corey Coleman, Josh Doctson and Will Fuller — were much better. But New Orleans superstar Michael Thomas was picked in the next round. A couple of odd picks were the story of Day 3. According to Pro Football Focus, Beavers was the second-lowest-graded tackle in college football in 2015, so the fourth-round selection was a head-scratcher. In the sixth round, it was German phenom Boehringer, who registered 1,232 receiving yards in 2015 for the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns of the German Football League. He never appeared in a game for the Vikings and still has yet to make his NFL debut — although as of last season, Boehringer was on Cincinnati’s practice squad. As a 26-year-old. Shrug.

7) 2017

RB Dalvin Cook (2nd), C Pat Elflein (3rd), DT Jaleel Johnson (4th), LB Ben Gedeon (4th), WR Rodney Adams (5th), G Danny Isidora (5th), TE Bucky Hodges (6th), WR Stacy Coley (7th), DL Ifeadi Odenigbo (7th), LB Elijah Lee (7th), CB Jack Tocho (7th)

Outlook: Minnesota didn’t have a first-round selection in 2017 due to its trade for quarterback Sam Bradford. Spielman did find first-round talent, though, in Florida State’s Cook, who is the focal point of Minnesota’s offense when healthy. After shining as a rookie center, Elflein has struggled mightily the past two seasons. His future with the franchise will be decided in 2020, the last year of his rookie deal. Johnson, Minnesota’s third-round selection, has benefited from Andre Patterson’s DL factory and is coming off his best season in 2019 with 29 tackles and 3.5 sacks. Of the seven selections in the fifth round or later, Odenigbo— the frontrunner to be Minnesota’s starting defensive end in 2020 — is the only player with any value. Hodges is known best for choosing to wear No. 84, promising to live up to that number and not making the team as a rookie. Adams played one game for Minnesota, and Coley never caught a pass.

6) 2018

CB Mike Hughes (1st), T Brian O’Neill (2nd), DE Jalyn Holmes (4th), TE Tyler Conklin (5th), K Daniel Carlson (5th), G Colby Gossett (6th), DE Ade Aruna (6th), LB Devante Downs (7th)

Outlook: Offensive line has been the Vikings’ biggest issue since Steve Hutchinson left in 2011. Spielman addressed this need in the second round by drafting O’Neill, who took over as the full-time starter at right tackle midway through the 2018 campaign and hasn’t looked back. Hughes tore his ACL in a rookie in 2018 and returned last season. Now that Alexander, Rhodes and Waynes all departed via free agency, the Vikings will really see what Hughes brings to the table in 2020. Carlson was infamously cut two games into the 2018 season after missing all three field-goal attempts — including two potential game-winners — against Green Bay. If Hughes and O’Neill continue to build on the promising start to their careers, the 2018 class could inch up the rankings.

5) 2019

C Garrett Bradbury (1st), TE Irv Smith Jr. (2nd), TB Alexander Mattison (3rd), G Dru Samia (4th), LB Cameron Smith (5th), DT Armon Watts (6th), S Marcus Epps (6th), T Oli Udoh (6th), CB Kris Boyd (7th), WR Dillon Mitchell (7th), WR Olabisi Johnson (7th), LS Austin Cutting (7th)

Outlook: If Samia pans out as a reliable NFL starter at guard, the 2019 draft could look very, very good in a few years. Bradbury looks like he’ll be a fixture at center for the Vikings for the foreseeable future. Smith Jr. was named to the 2019 All-Rookie team after catching 36 passes for 311 yards — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The 5-foot-11, 220-pound Mattison serves as a perfect one-two punch with Cook, tallying 462 rushing yards and a score as a rookie. Spielman found three players that contributed to the 2019 squad in seventh round in Boyd, Cutting and Johnson. Boyd tallied 22 tackles and one pass deflection in a limited role and is expected to vie for more playing time in 2020. Cutting will be the team’s long snapper for the long haul. And when Chad Beebe went down with injury early in the season, Johnson was a natural replacement with 31 catches for 294 yards and three scores. Give the 2019 class one or two more seasons, and it could easily climb to No. 2 in the Spielman draft rankings.

4) 2012

LT Matt Kalil (1st round), S Harrison Smith (1st), CB Josh Robinson (3rd), WR Jarius Wright (4th), TE Rhett Ellison (4th), WR Greg Childs (4th), DB Robert Blanton (5th), K Blair Walsh (6th), LB Audie Cole (7th), DE Trevor Guyton (7th)

Outlook: The careers of Kalil and Walsh are oddly parallel. Both excelled as rookies — Kalil was named to the 2012 Pro Bowl and Walsh set an NFL record by nailing all 10 field-goal attempts from 50+ yards. Both players spiraled after that. But Spielman made perhaps his best draft trade in 2012, getting back into the first round to select Smith. Five Pro Bowl nods and one All-Pro honor in 2017 later, Smith is one of the best safeties in franchise history. Elsewhere in the draft, Wright provided Minnesota with six seasons of production (224 REC, 2,782 YDS, 11 TD), but Childs, his college teammate at Arkansas, could never shake the injury bug. It’s Smith alone who propelled the 2012 class into the top four.

3) 2014

LB Anthony Barr (1st), QB Teddy Bridgewater (1st), DE Scott Crichton (3rd), RB Jerick McKinnon (3rd), OL David Yankey (5th), DB Antone Exum (6th), DB Kendall James (6th), DT Shamar Stephen (7th), LB Brandon Watts (7th), DB Jabari Price (7th)

Outlook: The only other top-10 pick in Spielman’s tenure as GM besides Kalil, UCLA linebacker Barr has panned out well. While he likely could rack up more tackles and sacks in other defensive schemes, Barr plays one of the most important roles in Zimmer’s defense as a versatile linebacker who can stop the run, rush the passer and cover tight ends and running backs in space. Bridgewater, who Spielman traded back into the first round at No. 32 overall to claim, is a complicated (and well-known) story. Just when Bridgewater looked like he was about to take The Leap, he seriously tore up his knee in practice before the 2016 season. While his career in Minnesota was finished after that, Bridgewater completed a nearly impossible comeback. He’s slated to be Carolina’s starter under center in 2020. After the first round, Spielman found McKinnon, a running back who could do what Adrian Peterson couldn’t – catch passes. Crichton’s career was derailed early and often by injuries. He played his last game in 2015 and compiled just 10 total tackles. Stephen can be blamed for Spielman’s addiction for seventh-round picks, as the defensive tackle has provided Minnesota’s defensive line with depth up the middle for five seasons. It’s the depth of this class paired with Barr’s longevity with the franchise that boosted it to No. 3 on this list.

2) 2013

DT Sharrif Floyd (1st), CB Xavier Rhodes (1st), WR Cordarrelle Patterson (1st), LB Gerald Hodges (4th), P Jeff Locke (5th), G Jeff Baca (6th), LB Michael Mauti (7th), G Travis Bond (7th), DT Everett Dawkins (7th)

Outlook: Spielman has drafted multiple players in the first round four times since taking over as GM, but 2013 marked his lone class with three first-rounders. At No. 23 overall, Spielman chose Floyd, whose career ended early with an ugly lawsuit due to the mismanagement of serious knee and ankle injuries. Spielman struck gold at No. 25 in Rhodes, who struggled early on with penalty issues but morphed into a top-five cornerback in the NFL. And at 29th overall, the pick was Tennessee’s Patterson. Patterson was far from a polished wide receiver, but he was the top return man in the game and was named an All-Pro returner twice with Minnesota. Outside of the first round, Spielman didn’t receive much value. Hodges and Mauti pitched in on special teams. Baca played all of four games. And taking a punter in the fifth round … is a bold move. Locke lasted four seasons before head coach Mike Zimmer’s restlessness with specialists got the best of him. Spielman can’t be blamed for Floyd’s injury problems, and the selections of Rhodes and Patterson were key in winning division titles in 2015 and 2017.

1) 2015

CB Trae Waynes (1st), LB Eric Kendricks (2nd), DE Danielle Hunter (3rd), T T.J. Clemmings (4th), TE MyCole Pruitt (5th), WR Stefon Diggs (5th), T Tyrus Thompson (6th), DE B.J. Dubose (6th), T Austin Shepherd (7th), LB Edmond Robinson (7th)

Outlook: This was a very, very good draft. It’s was Spielman’s finest — by far. Not only did Spielman go a perfect 3 for 3 with his first three picks, but he also snagged Diggs, one of the NFL’s top route runners and a two-time 1,000-yard receiver, in the fifth round. Kendricks has led the Vikings in tackles in every season he’s played, and was finally awarded with an All-Pro nod in 2019. And Hunter, the youngest player selected in the 2015 draft, went from project to star almost immediately. In 2019, he became the youngest player in NFL history to register 50 career sacks. Even though the six other players drafted never made a notable impact in Minnesota, selecting two borderline stars at CB and WR, an All-Pro linebacker and a potential Hall of Fame pass rusher might go down as Spielman’s finest class.