The Minnesota Vikings went with Jeff Gladney with their second pick in the first round of the NFL Draft. Here’s a look at how the pick will help in 2020.
In the second of two selections in the first round of Thursday night’s opening round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings went with a prospect on the defensive side of the ball.
In the opening round of the draft, which will wrap up on Saturday, the Vikings used their second of two picks in the latter portion of the first round to select TCU cornerback Jeff Gladney at No. 31 overall.
The Vikings were originally slated to have their second pick come at No. 25 overall, until they made a trade with the San Francisco 49ers to move back to No. 31 — while also acquiring picks No. 117 in the fourth round and No. 176 in the fifth round — to grab Gladney with the final selection in the first round.
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That selection comes just a few picks after Minnesota went with LSU wide receiver Justin Jefferson at No. 22 overall earlier on in the first round, a pick that addressed arguably its biggest need on offense heading into the draft.
The Vikings were likely eying a cornerback all along with their second pick in the opening round, and perhaps they figured they would still be able to grab one of the targets at that position just a few picks back while also bringing in a few more selections to add to the overall pick list in the draft.
This offseason, Minnesota has seen a decent amount of defensive backs depart in free agency, and also ended up cutting Pro Bowl cornerback Xavier Rhodes once the new league year officially began. So the cornerback spot was one the Vikings needed to address early on in the draft and might end up picking another cornerback with one of their remaining picks in the later rounds in the coming days.
Gladney is a great value pick for Minnesota, allowing the team to immediately add a player into the mix of the back end of the defense. The cornerback is a rugged and hard-nosed player who will fit in perfectly to the mold of which Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and the rest of the Minnesota defense likes to play with.
In his career at TCU, Gladney played in a total of 50 games over four seasons, finishing with 145 total tackles, five interceptions and one forced fumble. In his senior campaign alone, he finished with 31 tackles and one interception.
The Vikings were able to move back and still select a cornerback they probably had their eyes on all along at the end of the first round of the draft, and they were also able to counter their earlier offensive selection of a wide receiver to shore up some needs on defense. While also gaining some solid assets in this year’s draft to ultimately choose Gladney at No. 31, Minnesota gets a grade of A for this selection.
At the end of the night, Minnesota didn’t ultimately move up in the draft, but the Vikings still ended filling two needs with their two first-round selections and adding some assets that can be used elsewhere either in this draft or as trade bait moving forward.