Draft simulation – Syndication Server

Minnesota goes for need in penultimate Vikings Wire simulation

The penultimate Vikings Wire simulation saw the team draft a corner, wide receiver and from there, filled as many needs as it could.

There’s only one more Vikings Wire draft simulation after this one.

These draft simulations have been fun, and they probably give you an idea of who’s available for the Vikings at certain points in the draft. In this draft, I picked for needs and didn’t get too crazy.

There are some choices I made as to how long the Vikings should wait to draft a positional need, but that’s a given in any draft simulation. It would have been nice to get an edge rusher earlier than the third round, for instance, but with the picks who fell before that pick, I just couldn’t do it. You can find the entire draft simulation here.

Here are the Vikings’ picks:

Round 1: TCU CB Jeff Gladney

For the second draft simulation in a row, Gladney fell to the Vikings at No. 22 and I took him.

Gladney is a solid pressing defensive back, and he can definitely compete for a starting spot at corner. If both Holton Hill and Mike Hughes end up beating him out for the two spots out wide, and they play the entire season, that says a lot about how good the Vikings are going to be at corner. And Gladney could come in and be a good nickel corner.

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Vikings Wire draft simulation with new compensatory picks

Now that the Vikings have been awarded compensatory picks, how does that change the draft for the team? Here is a simulation from Vikings Wire with the new picks included.

The Vikings were awarded three compensatory draft picks for the 2020 NFL Draft.

I wanted to see how that would change the strategy of the draft, especially in the third round, where the team now has two picks. More draft picks, in addition to good players getting picked before the Vikings could take them, led to this draft being harder than the first simulation I did.

I drafted the best player available in the first round, which was Alabama safety Xavier McKinney. From there, I attempted to stitch together a draft class that could benefit the Vikings for next season.

Defensive tackle remains a tough position for me to draft when I’m doing a simulation. It seems like I either have to draft a defensive tackle who’s supposed to be taken in the next round, or hold off and miss out on more talent on the interior defensive line.

You can see what other teams did in the simulation here.

Here is who I decided to take, followed by a brief explanation for why I chose them. I did this simulation at The Draft Network.

Round 1: Alabama safety Xavier McKinney

Like I said, Xavier McKinney was my first-round choice. He seemed like the best player available at the time, and Minnesota could use a safety for next season if Anthony Harris walks. McKinney paired with Harrison Smith at safety could be menacing for opposing offenses.

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