The 2011 NFL Draft is officially in the books, and the opinions on how all 32 NFL teams fared in the draft are starting to come in from across the internet. Our Minnesota Vikings are no exception, and so we'll try to round up all of the draft grades we can find in one place for your reading pleasure.
We'll start with SB Nation's home for everything draft-related, Mocking the Draft. According to the good folks at MtD, the Minnesota Vikings were a "winner" in the 2011 NFL Draft.
What the? With Christian Ponder with the 12th overall pick? That's right. I'm hanging my 2011 draft hat on Ponder developing into a good quarterback. After that, the Vikings made a lot of excellent choices. Kyle Rudolph was a first-round player before injury. Christian Ballard could be really good on that d-line, Brandon Burton is the cornerback they needed and center Brandon Fusco is a nice scheme fit find in the sixth round.
Well, to be honest, there's nothing wrong with Mr. Kadar's assessment in this case. Ponder is going to end up being a good pick, and many of Minnesota's other picks had them taking players that were graded significantly higher than the Vikings wound up taking them at. Outside of the two players they took in the seventh round, it's hard to find any reaches on the Vikings' draft board. . .and if you have to go all the way to the seventh round to find something to criticize about a team's draft, that means it must be awfully good.