The Vikings’ 5 Worst Draft Sins of the 5 Years
The Minnesota Vikings have struck gold a few times in the draft in the last five years. Justin Jefferson, Christian Darrisaw, and Jordan Addison can attest. J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner could even turn into big deals.
The Vikings’ 5 Worst Draft Sins of the 5 Years
They’ve also fired up so awful decisions, sins the club is still undoing today.
In that vein, these are the Vikings’ top worst draft decisions of the last half-decade, ranked in ascending order (No. 1 = worst draft sin).
5. Selection Ed Ingram in Round 2 (2022)
The idea was created in good faith. The school even [usually] pays off well for the Vikings (Justin Jefferson, Danielle Hunter)
But LSU’s Ed Ingram did not take off as a starter in Minnesota, chosen from the 2nd Round of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s first draft, an event now infamous in purple history. Minnesota needed guard help at that time, and Ingram could’ve been perfect for the job. The intent was righteous.
But Ingram flat-out wasn’t very productive, and his development didn’t progress enough to blend with a Super Bowl-contending football, which Minnesota thinks it has in 2025. So, Adofo-Mensah traded Ingram to the Houston Texans last month. He received a 6th-Round pick.
Ingram tallied a 54.0 Pro Football Focus grade in 2024. Not ideal.
4. Three Straight Gaffes in 2021 Draft
During Rick Spielman’s final draft, he pulled three men out of Round 3 in back-to-back-to-back fashion: Kellen Mond, Chazz Surratt, and Wyatt Davis.
Onlookers were high on the men’s upside for about a year, but by the time the 2022 season rolled around, Mond, Surratt, and Davis did not work for the Vikings. They were all cut.
Ruthlessly bad drafting.
3. Saying “No” to Kyle Hamilton in 2022
Ultimately, the Vikings sought a safety in the 2022 draft. How do we know? Well, they drafted the guy at No. 1 on this list that night.
Just like everybody everywhere predicted, Hamilton immediately transformed into one of the NFL’s best safeties.
He could’ve been a Viking without the team’s leadership blinking an eye. But they got cute with intradivisional trades.
2. Picking Andrew Booth (2022)
Adofo-Mensah even admitted it: he tried to fill too many roster holes at once during his maiden voyage draft, trading his 12th overall pick to the Detroit Lions and firing up another deal with the Green Bay Packers in Round 2.
That led to Andrew Booth in Round 2, a man who possessed rather dazzling upside. But Booth spent most of his rookie season hurt, and when he did return to full health, he just wasn’t very effective. The Clemson alumnus spent two seasons in purple before Adofo-Mensah traded Booth to the Dallas Cowboys for another underachieving corner, Nahshon Wright.
Not for nothing, Wright remains on the Vikings’ current depth chart. Booth is still in Dallas.
1. Drafting Lewis Cine (2022)
Before Booth, there was Cine.
Adofo-Mensah passed on the aforementioned Hamilton but still got a safety in the 2022 NFL Draft. Cine possessed extreme physical prowess, aggressive as hell and hungry to succeed.
But he snapped his leg in a game against the New Orleans Saints across the pond about a month into his regular season career, and that set the tone for his bust-worthy resume.
Folks held out hope that Cine would make the 2024 active roster and rise up the depth chart, but he was waived amid roster cut-downs. He latched onto the Buffalo Bils and later the Philadelphia Eagles. Cine won a Super Bowl two months ago, although he didn’t really play in Philadelphia.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if Minnesota wanted a safety — it apparently wanted precisely that — Kyle Hamilton was the wisest choice. Not Cine.
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