Minnesota Vikings: Re-drafting the team’s last 6 first-round picks

Hindsight is 20/20 — let’s use it to figure out the best way the Minnesota Vikings could have used their last six first-round picks in the NFL Draft.

The 2020 NFL Draft is less than a week away. While we eagerly wait for football’s annual graduation ceremony, let’s take a look back at how the Minnesota Vikings could have made the most of their previous first-round picks.

Let’s be honest — at least half of the Vikings’ recent Day 1 selections haven’t gone all that great. Among the bunch is a busted wide receiver, an injury-prone cornerback and a promising quarterback who suffered a catastrophic knee crumbling. Rick Spielman certainly could have done worse, but he also could have done better.

While it’s easy to look back and point out the mistakes, that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining. It also doesn’t mean it isn’t an interest exercise in thinking about how the present could be different if different choices had been made.

Plus, it’s not like we have much else to do while we all sit around self-quarantining.

So let’s take a look at the Vikings’ last six first-round picks and try to determine how those picks could have worked out better for the franchise. It’s obviously too late to fix anything, so take it for what it is — an opportunity to envision an alternate (and more successful) history for the Vikings.