For Vikings, It’s a Kwity Monday
Dustin Baker
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Two prominent mock drafts were released on Monday, and both sent EDGE rusher Kwity Paye to the Minnesota Vikings.
Paye is a 22-year-old Guinea-born talent from the University of Michigan.
One was from CBS Sports and was authored by Ryan Wilson. His pathway for Paye to the Vikings is quite simple:
“This has been a popular pairing and Paye did nothing to change our minds after a strong pro day performance.”
This mock draft is also notable because Minnesota home-state treasure, Trey Lance — a quarterback from NDSU — somehow slid past the Vikings to the New England Patriots at the 15th slot. In Wilson’s mock, the San Francisco 49ers inexplicably take University of Alabama’s Mac Jones as the red and gold quarterback of the future. While anything is possible, there is no humanly reason that the 49ers would have to pay a king’s ransom to the Miami Dolphins to move up nine spots in the draft — as San Francisco did last week. But we shall see on Jones to the 49ers.
The other mock draft — from Pro Football Focus — sends Paye to Minnesota, too. Consider it a post-second-wave of free agency theme. PFF’s Austin Gayle says of the Paye’s selection at #14:
“Paye is a rare athlete who won’t last deep into the first round if he tests as well as expected at the 2021 NFL scouting combine. He also produced the fourth-best PFF pass-rush win rate (26%) of any Power Five edge defender in the country in 2020.”
Ergo, these eare two relatively credible mock drafters that send pass-rushing assistance — instead of offensive line help — to the Vikings in late April. Offensive line is the weakest spot on Minnesota’s depth chart, so the working theory is that the team will fortify the situation with rookie linemen.
Well, not in the 1st Round — according to CBS Sports and Pro Football Focus.
Other schools of thought have offensive trenchmen like Rashawn Slater, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Christian Darrisaw, or Samuel Cosmi joining the Vikings in the middle of the 1st Round. Monday morning, though, continues the trend of head coach Mike Zimmer’s defense mounting up. In the last two weeks, general manager Rick Spielman has only supplied new defensive faces to the team via free agency — no new offensive personnel.
The Vikings have signed Stephen Weatherly (DE), Dalvin Tomlinson (3DT), Nick Vigil (LB), Patrick Peterson (CB), Mackensie Alexander (CB), and Xavier Woods (FS) during the 2021 free agency period to date.
If the Vikings do bypass offensive line needs in the 1st Round in favor of plucking them in later rounds, most reasonable folks will have zero grievances with Paye.
Here is his scouting report from The Draft Network’s Kyle Crabbs:
“Kwity Paye is an exciting prospect whose potential and physical ability is only now beginning to be realized on the gridiron. There’s an extremely high ceiling in Paye’s game thanks to his athletic abilities; if his NFL team is able to continue to draw fundamental improvements out of him to allow him to continue to simply react to discard or defeat blocks, he’ll be in line for plenty of explosive plays in opposing backfields. The steps Paye made in 2020 during the abbreviated season should only further fuel optimism that his development is still on an upward trajectory. Paye has won in the past most sufficiently from tight alignments and utilized his powerful hands and functional strength to diminish angles and find creases to press through and rally to the football. I do feel he’s a bit more of a linear athlete and his ability to collapse tackle sets with speed to power is going to shine more frequently than his reps when looking to crash off the edge and win with finesse. Paye has been forged by fire through a challenging upbringing as an immigrant and finds his “why” in taking care of his family — he’s internally driven and appears to be the kind of individual you want in your building to buy into the process. He’s a home run from an intangibles, effort and tools perspective but his scheme fit is an important accommodation to make for optimal success.”