NFL Draft Class Grades: Vikings' 11-Man Haul Ranked in Top Ten By Consensus
It's not quite last year, when the Vikings' 2020 draft class received the highest consensus grade of any team in the NFL, but Minnesota fared pretty well in the draft grades department once again in 2021.
Every year, Rene Bugner (@RNBWCV on Twitter) compiles draft class grades from prominent writers and analysts across the internet to give each team a consensus GPA. Draft grades are fairly meaningless, but it's still interesting to see what the national opinion of every team's class is immediately following the draft.
A year ago, the Vikings got a 3.92 GPA from 13 writers, leading the NFL. That aged pretty well, as Justin Jefferson ripped rookie receiving records to shreds and both Ezra Cleveland and Cameron Dantzler established themselves as promising young starters.
This year, in his latest update, Bugner has included 26 different grade sources.
The Vikings are tied with the Jaguars for eighth.
Of those 26, only 3 are a C+ or lower, while there are ten in the A/A- range and 13 in the B+/B/B- range.
That feels about right. The Vikings got great value in offensive linemen Christian Darrisaw and Wyatt Davis, but a bunch of their other picks were reaches compared to most pre-draft player rankings. I'm higher on some of those picks (Kellen Mond, Ihmir Smith-Marsette) than others (Chazz Surratt, Kene Nwangwu), but we'll just have to wait and see how the class looks in a few years.
Last year, the Bears (25th) and Packers (32nd) came in towards the bottom of the consensus rankings. The Packers are once again towards the bottom in 2021, but the Bears shot up all the way to the No. 1 spot after landing Justin Fields, Teven Jenkins, and some interesting late-rounders. That's a reason to be concerned if you're a Vikings fan.
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