The Vikings select Mississippi State CB Cameron Dantzler with 89th pick, Trade Down from 105

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Apr 24, 2020

Note: The Vikings traded down from pick 105 to the ‘Aints for the following

Perhaps it’s the intertwined nature of social media and sports, but it feels like this draft (more so than any other in history) has the most varied reactions and thoughts of any draft I can think of. That having been said, this draft has been the most wide-open of any that I can think of, at least since I started covering the Vikings for a “living” in 2015 (albeit it was the 2015 draft that led me down this path in the first place). It was my reaction to the Trae Waynes pick that essentially forced other Vikings fans on /r/MinnesotaVikings on Reddit to tell me to start my own website if I was “so smart”.

The long and short of that situation was that it was widely known for long enough for there to be a days long “debate” about the pick that the Vikings were linked to Trae Waynes. I started the live draft of the 2016 draft by literally saying, “ANYONE BUT TREADWELL”.

This year?

It’s been a lot harder to really peg what the Vikings were going to do by position let alone players per position. That’s a testament to the sheer amount of needs that the Vikings have on both sides of the ball, something that is reflected by the 14 total picks the Vikings have in the 2020 draft (and the cardboard cutouts of ‘Ring of Honor’ members that currently populate the Vikings depth chart).

Because it’s the Vikings and because it’s the internet, there’s just a tremendous amount of diversity in terms of reactions to the Vikings’ draft thus far. I’ve heard from people I respect mightily the exact opposite on the Justin Jefferson pick, with people coming closer together on the Jeff Gladney and Ezra Cleveland selections.

With their fourth-pick thus far, though, the Vikings went corner again, selecting Mississippi State “shut down” corner Cameron “I’m Not a Reindeer” Dantzler. That pick may have been the one thing people like me saw coming, in general (this team is coached my Mike Zimmer after all), but especially after the second that now-former corner Xavier Rhodes turned down the Vikings’ offer to return, instead opting for a “fresh start” in Indianapolis.

So, what do we make of Cameron Dantzler?

It’s not hard to see why Zimmer would want to draft Dantzler. With Trae Waynes and Xavier Rhodes both gone the Vikings were suddenly without the height, or rather what Zimmer calls “length”, at the position. As happy as people are with the Jeff Gladney pick, he’s “only” 5’11” vs. the 6’2″ heights of both Waynes and Rhodes. Dantzler is 6’2″ and 188 pounds (which means he’s three whole pounds lighter than Gladney).

According to NFL.com, Dantzler actually comes pretty close to Gladney in terms of their prospect grade, as both grade between 6.2 and 6.4. Dantzler ironically had a career day against Lousiana State and their nation-leading offensive and receiving corps, including the Vikings’ number one overall pick in Justin Jefferson. In that game, Dantzler allowed only 13 yards receiving (on two of four targets), and ended that game with an amazing 90.8 defensive grade and a perfect 99.9 pass-rushing grade. He also finished that game with seven tackles and half a sack, he forced a fumble and broke up two passes.

That’s after a sophomore season in 2018 in which he allowed zero touchdowns. Not only that, he led the cornerback unit that season (that also allowed zero touchdowns). He’s labeled a shutdown corner despite his 4.64 40-yard dash speed, as well, which means he’s as much of a leader as he is crafty and highly technical (as you can’t be slow and technically unsound). With Gladney, now, the Vikings have drafted the 8th and 10th ranked corners in the draft in two of their top four picks, putting together an argument by and for head coach Mike Zimmer for his contract to be extended beyond 2020.

Again, this is something many saw coming after it was apparent that Zimmer and Spielman (and Rob Brzezinski) weren’t going to attempt to keep the defense together for one more season, but instead, they were going to amass as much cap space and as many draft picks as possible to put together a promising enough young unit to justify a re-up for both (both of which are in their own contract years).

Being able to get the 8th and 10th ranked corners about 50 picks apart (from the first-to-third round) is something that clearly Zimmer and Spielman (who I should just refer to as Spielmer at this point… Or Zimman?) couldn’t pass up. It obviously remains to be seen whether or not Zimmer is around after 2020 to develop these picks, which very well could be the case as it typically takes a couple of seasons for even semi-established corners (like Xavier Rhodes, who was on the team before Zimmer was hired in 2014) to acclimate to the complexity of Zimmer’s system.

With Dantzler’s need to overcome his lack of speed with good technique, perhaps he can not only buck that trend but become the new leader of a unit that is in clear need of that.

NFL.com Profile

Strengths

  • Explosive athlete and former long-jump champ in high school
  • Has plenty of confidence and competitiveness
  • Impressive tape against LSU and Alabama
  • Good anticipation to jump in squeeze slants
  • Can hem up press release with patient but aggressive jams
  • Crowds and stays in phase with routes outside the numbers
  • Maximizes length to shield the 50-50 balls
  • Rips through hands if he can’t make the catch
  • Smells a rat with route combinations overlapping coverage to find it
  • Response time from zone is fairly immediate
  • Sticks and drives back with suddenness from side-shuffle

Weaknesses

  • Added weight but stringy build is who he is
  • Bigger receivers can body him up at the top of the route
  • Needs to limit handsy face-guarding as a pro
  • Could struggle with early pass interference issues
  • Loses positioning when turning to find ball with inside eye
  • Slow to get off blocks in the quick game
  • Not a square-and-wrap tackler
  • Tackling style could lead to durability concerns in the future