If you want to have sustained success in the NFL, the best way to do it is with young talent. It’s great to go out and pick up high-quality free agents on the market, but if you want to be able to guarantee consistent success, the free agent market should be a supplement, not the backbone of your team.
Largely, that means building your team through the NFL draft, something the Minnesota Vikings have been trying to do over the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah tenure — with mixed success. While some are high on the potential of incoming rookies, such as J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner, others- like ESPN, for example- aren’t as high on the young talent the Vikings general manager has been able to amass.
ESPN data analyst Aaron Schatz recently took a deep dive into the rosters of each team to determine which ones are best set up for success with their young talent. Schatz took many factors into account, including starts and snaps by players under 25, age-adjusted quality of play, value and lengths of contracts, and many other factors. Where he has the Vikings may surprise some of the more optimistic fans out there.
Last season, the Vikings came in at number 18 on this list, but this year, they slide down six spots to 24. The slide comes in part because players like Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw “graduated” out of consideration for the list.
The other key factor is simply the lack of high-end talent that qualifies. Schatz has the qualifying “blue-chip” players for the Vikings: last year’s rookie standout Jordan Addison and McCarthy, who will likely start the season behind Sam Darnold on the depth chart.
As Schatz points out, the only other player the Vikings have who qualifies for the list and started more than one game for the team is Ivan Pace, Jr. Pace has been lavished with praise this offseason for his breakout rookie season as an undrafted free agent, but that fact underscores just how much work is left to do to get fresh, young talent on the roster.