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Minnesota Vikings: Is it Worth Drafting a Receiver in the First Round?

By Ben Ryan

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The 2015 NFL Draft is slowly approaching, 40 days to be precise, but who’s counting? Don’t blink though, because it’s going to come faster than you think. After all, yesterday, March 20, was the first day of Spring! That came faster than expected too. So keep those lovely keen senses ready because as free agency comes and goes like the seasons, so do mock drafts.

Diving head first into the Minnesota Vikings draft plans, all we can do is guess and hope for what teams can do. That’s the fun part, and even for the Vikings it’s a huge mystery. Prior to the pickup of receiver Mike Wallace, anybody could tell you that they were going to go into the draft without a true number once receiver. At that point, it seemed like they were going to take one of the “big three” receivers such as Amari Cooper, Kevin White, and DeVante Parker, depending on who would be available.

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As great and talented as these three players are, the Vikings acquired Mike Wallace from the Miami Dolphins who will fill the long loss at the true number one receiver spot. However, there is still question on the depth of the receiving core, which lacked to have one receiver reach 1,000 yards in 2014. While Cordarrelle Patterson still remains one giant question mark, there is a new guy in town to possibly make all those worries and questions disappear.

Charles Johnson.

The young, incredibly athletic wide out had 475 total receiving yards on 31 catches last year, and really proved to be better than a seventh round pick during the second half of the season. At 6’2″, 216 pounds, Johnson is a large, large man. The thing that stands out, though, is his pure athleticism. At Grand Valley State’s pro day (Johnson’s college,) he ran a 4.38 40-yard dash, leaped to a 39 1/2 vertical jump, and an 11-foot-1 broad jump. Please, if that doesn’t absolutely scream freak athlete… there’s a problem. Oh, also, he bench pressed 225 lbs, 14 times. That’s raw strength.

Johnson is a top-notch athlete with tremendous upside. He has great hands and with Wallace alongside of him as a deep threat, and red zone threat, so if Johnson continues to work hard and Patterson can really be the star rather than bust that he is supposed to be…look out. Teddy Bridgewater will be one happy man if this happens. On a side not, Bridgewater is bound to breakout to be even better for the upcoming seasons, giving him these kinds of weapons will only make this young man a bigger threat than he has shown to be.

So, back to the main topic here. Do the Vikings really need a wide receiver in the first round? After the promising second half from Johnson, and the great addition of Wallace. It’s a little less of a necessity for them to go after one with the 11th pick. If one of them are available? Well then they have to have an open mind coming into the pick.

If they go with the mindset of picking the best talent available, it’ll be interesting. It may not be worth making a rookie the number one guy, though. It’s time to fill the need and look at what they could definitely use. Which would be someone on the offensive line, a cornerback, or maybe even another linebacker to go along with the promising Anthony Barr.

The answer seems to be no, the Vikings could certainly pick up great receivers in the second or even the third round. With the plentiful amount of offensive weapons in this upcoming draft, they could certainly use it to their advantage. Their best scenario would be to draft with intentions on helping the offensive line, or someone for the secondary. If they can protect Teddy, there may not even be the need to go completely out of their way to draft a receiver.

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