Vikings Will Now See Former 1st-Round Pick Twice per Year
Dustin Baker
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The Minnesota Vikings haven’t encountered much luck drafting cornerbacks as of late, and the franchise will soon see former 1st-Round pick from 2018, Mike Hughes, twice per year.
Hughes, who played for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2021 after a trade by former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, was signed by the Detroit Lions on Monday.
The Lions will slide Hughes into a cornerback room with another 1st-Rounder, Jeff Okudah, and Amani Oruwariye on the 2022 depth chart. Detroit also holsters three picks inside the first 34 spots, gaining an extra selection from the Matthew Stafford trade in January 2021.
The Vikings, on the other hand, remain slender at cornerback. Hughes was traded by Spielman before the 2021 regular season started solely because the Central Florida alumnus could not stay healthy. While Hughes performed aptly when on the field (for the most part), he missed exactly half of all Vikings games from 2018 to 2020. In return for Hughes, the Vikings swung a 6th-Round draft pick that will be spent by Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on April 30th.
Playing 45% of all snaps for the Chiefs in 2021 — and not missing a single game for the first time in his career — Hughes had a reclamation year. He tallied a 72.9 grade from Pro Football Focus, the 18th-best in the NFL among all cornerbacks from the 2021 season — right in the ballpark of the Vikings Cameron Dantzler, who scored a 73.8.
The Lions hope for the Chiefsian version of Hughes as Detroit ranked 23rd in the NFL for passing yards allowed. Dan Campbell’s team also surrendered 31 touchdown passes in 2021, the seventh-most leaguewide. Both metrics vivify why the organization may spend one of its first four picks on a corner this April.
On the whole, though, the Lions are hungry and adding Hughes checks some boxes. He’s affordable, so the risk is low, and the return is 1st-Round-talent worthy.
Detroit stunned Minnesota in 2021, toppling the Vikings in Week 13 at Ford Field in soul-crushing fashion. The Vikings maintained playoff hopes thereafter, but it was the loss in Detroit that emotionally signified how bad operations had devolved under former coach Mike Zimmer.
Detroit holds +1200 odds to win the NFC North in 2022.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. His YouTube Channel, VikesNow, debuts in March 2022. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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