Vikings Recent Signing Shouldn’t Affect Draft Plans

Paul Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Vikings signing cornerback Joejuan Williams is a fabulous marker indicating the team knows it must fortify depth in the CB room.

The move should be applauded if only to celebrate that general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah gets it — “they need more corners than this.”

Vikings Recent Signing Shouldn’t Affect Draft Plans

What you, the Vikings fan and amateur draft savant, should not do is wipe cornerback off the list of your Round-1 mock drafts.

Vikings Recent Signing
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Williams could turn into Duke Shelley reincarnated — and hopefully he does — but that’s a relative longshot. The former 2nd-Round pick will head to Minnesota in hopes of a career reclamation, turning around his injury fate from 2022 and perhaps effectuating a once-lofty prognosis for his career.

Yet, those best-laid plans are maybes.

Williams missed all of 2022 because of a bad shoulder and has started one game in his four-year career. Acquiring a free agent with one career start is a bland nothingburger for a team needing starting cornerbacks. If Williams’ name were swapped with Shaquill Griffin or Rock Ya-Sing, for example, then one would be righteous in possibly putting the cornerback draft need in the cupboard.

Griffin and Ya-Sin are starters, though. For all intents and purposes, Williams is a guy.

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Adofo-Mensah could break in about 10 different ways in Round 1 of next week’s draft — trade up for a quarterback, trade down for multiple assets like last year, or stay put at No. 23 and draft a cornerback, wide receiver, linebacker, EDGE rusher, or defensive tackle. The event is a purple mystery, significantly less easy to predict than the last five to six years because Minnesota always just needed offensive linemen.

No matter how you dice it, even including free-agent additions of Byron Murphy from the Arizona Cardinals or Williams from New England, cornerback remains a glaring need, with flashing lights and the whole nine yards.

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The Vikings lost Patrick Peterson (Steelers), Duke Shelley (Raiders), Cameron Dantlzer (Commanders), Kris Boyd (Cardinals), and Chandon Sullivan (free agency) in the last six weeks. Five men exited the backdoor. Two entered the front, Murphy and Williams. Brian Flores’ defense needs more startable bodies, unless last year’s rookies, Andrew Booth and Akayleb Evans, are undeniably ready to make the jump. That would be a hard forecast to sell, considering recent injury histories.

For roughly three months, defensive backs — mainly CBs — Deonte Banks, Joey Porter Jr., Cam Smith, Kelee Ringo, and Emmanuel Forbes have inhabited the Vikings mock-draft orbit. They should stay there for the next eight days.

Williams is a signee of which fans and coaches hope he can blossom. But not a lock for more.


Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.

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