The 5 Biggest Draft Blunders in Vikings History
The 2025 NFL Draft kicks off in 19 days, and the Minnesota Vikings will hope to improve a depth chart that already looks pretty promising.
The 5 Biggest Draft Blunders in Vikings History
The franchise has encountered some notable misses since 1961, with onlookers hoping general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will avoid such blunders this go-round.
Ranked in ascending order (No. 1 = worst draft pick), these are the five worst draft picks in Vikings history.
5. D.J. Dozier (RB)
Minnesota drafted Dozier from Round 1 of the 1987 NFL Draft with the 14th overall pick. Back then, the NFL was rather run-happy, so the Dozier selection would’ve meant a lot more 38 years ago than some team drafting a running back today.
Unfortunately, Dozier didn’t amount to much in purple, sticking around for 37 games and banking 691 rushing yards and 7 rushing touchdowns. His season high of rushing yards peaked at 257 in 1987, his rookie season.
Dozier was out of the NFL by age 26, trying on the Detroit Lions on for size in 1991 before retiring.
He was a flop.
4. Erasmus James (DT)
James joined the Vikings as a 1st-Rounder in 2005, the 18th pick in the draft that season. Like most 1st-Rounders, Minnesota had high hopes for the young defensive tackle, but he never took off and slipped out of the NFL after the 2008 season.
He played 23 games in Minnesota, with 12 starts, tabulating 38 tackles and 5 sacks. James battled injuries during his brief career, eventually traded to the Washington Commanders in spring 2008. Of course, he didn’t play well there, either.
These days, he’s about the same age as Aaron Rodgers, if that can be believed.
3. Lewis Cine (S)
Cine played 10 defensive snaps before leaving the franchise last summer. Just 10.
He broke his leg in London during a game with the New Orleans Saints as a rookie, and that all but ended his Vikings career. Cine returned for 2023, hardly played, and was released a year later amid roster trimdowns.
Not for nothing, Cine won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles two months ago, though he didn’t do much of anything.
His fractured femur, of course, was a raw deal, and those injuries cannot be predicted, but he’ll remain one of the worst purple draft picks ever. Cine remains on the Eagles’ roster.
2. Leo Hayden (RB)
Before Chuck Foreman saved the day, Minnesota drafted Hayden in Round 1 of the 1971 NFL Draft.
He played in the preseason that year, and then that was it. Hayden latched onto the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 70s, gained 11 total rushing yards, and retired at 25.
His bio might make Lewis Cine look like an all-star.
1. Dimitrius Underwood (LB)
Minnesota drafted Underwood in Round 1 back in 1999, and unlike Hayden, the off-ball linebacker didn’t even make it to the preseason.
On an August day in 1999, Underwood walked away from Vikings training camp, ending his career in the Twin Cities. He latched onto the Dallas Cowboys roster a year later but didn’t amount to much. Legal troubles followed Underwood throughout the 2000s, and he would eventually open up about his struggles with mental health, which are much more out in the open now than in 1999.
Underwood’s family accused a cult of messing with his head.
His Vikings career was a fiasco.
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