One Vikings Curse Continues into Another Season
The Minnesota Vikings have no luck whatsoever in drafting cornerbacks.
One Vikings curse continues into another campaign as the team’s struggles at a roster spot drag on, extending a years-long trend of draft misses and bad luck.
None.
The team traded third-year corner Mekhi Blackmon to the Indianapolis Colts on Monday, continuing a faux cornerback curse, with no signs of relenting.
The curse dates back about a decade.
Vikings CB Curse Shows No Signs of Ending
If you know how to draft cornerbacks, apply for a job with the Vikings.
Mekhi Blackmon Out via Trade
Blackmon didn’t quite make it to Year No. 3 in the Twin Cities.
NBC Sports‘ Charean Williams wrote Monday, “The Vikings have traded defensive back Mekhi Blackmon to the Colts for a 2026 sixth-round pick, the teams announced. The Vikings made Blackmon a third-round pick in 2023, and he played 15 games with three starts as a rookie.”
“He totaled 41 tackles, one interception, eight passes defensed and a fumble recovery that season. During the first training camp practice of 2024, Blackmon tore an ACL and missed the entire season on injured reserve. Blackmon was back for the offseason program and training camp but was behind Byron Murphy Jr. and Isaiah Rodgers on the depth chart.”
Minnesota now has a satchel of late-round picks to use on subsequent trades this week — or save them for lottery ticket rookies in future drafts.
The CB Curse Continues
The bigger implication is the cornerback curse.
Minnesota absolutely refuses to successfully draft a CB. The last guy who hit was Trae Waynes, a 1st-Rounder from the 2015 NFL Draft. And even he was decent, not elite.
Minnesota also unearthed cornerback Mackensie Alexander from the 2016 NFL Draft, and if properly considered, he’d check in somewhere between “good pick” and “wasted pick.” Very quietly and step by step, each time Minnesota has drafted a corner, under two regimes, led by Rick Spielman and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the Vikings have failed when choosing rookie cornerbacks.
It’s relentless.
The Examples since 2016
Since Waynes and Alexander, Minnesota has chosen these corners from the NFL draft:
- Kris Boyd
- Jeff Gladney
- Mike Hughes
- Andrew Booth
- Akayleb Evans
- Mekhi Blackmon
- Cameron Dantzler
To be fair, not all of those players utterly stink; some are mediocre. However, none have latched on for the long haul in Minnesota, with Dantzler somehow the longest at three seasons.
Put plainly, every time Spielman or Adofo-Mensah has picked a rookie corner, that man eventually failed for a long-term trajectory. No exceptions.
No Rhyme or Reason for It
It’s also worth noting that there is method to the madness. Minnesota has tried out players for size from all schools, rounds, and of all shapes and sizes. Spielman and Adofo-Mensah have drafted 1st-Rounders, 2nd-Rounder, and so forth. They’ve tried slot corners and men who play on the outside.
Different defensive coordinators have attempted to mold each man from the bunch, to no avail.
The science is simple: if you are a corner, drafted by Minnesota since 2017, you won’t last long in the Twin Cities. It’s a wicked curse, with no explanation or timetable for resolution. Spielman and Adofo-Mensah do not have a “tell” that indicates a player will morph into a bust. The outcome has remained inevitable, though. The purple team cannot draft cornerbacks.
Blackmon’s Outlook in Indy
Colts Wire‘s Paul Bretl weighed in on the Blackmon trade Monday night: “The Vikings selected Blackmon in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft out of USC. During that rookie year, Blackmon appeared in 15 games, which included making three starts, and played 434 defensive snaps.”
“Blackmon allowed a completion rate of 63% on 44 targets as a rookie. He gave up 10.2 yards per catch, according to PFF, while forcing one interception and eight pass breakups. My early guess is that at 5-11 – 178 pounds, Blackmon gives the Colts added nickel depth behind Kenny Moore with the flexibility to have him fill other roles as needed.”
Blackon gets a change of scenery and a chance to rehabilitate his reputation after Minnesota gave up on him so soon.
Bretl added, “The addition of Blackmon to the cornerback room makes an already crowded cornerback room even more congested. Blackmon joins a unit that features Charvarius Ward and Kenny Moore. Jaylon Jones and JuJu Brents also returned from injury lately, while Chris Lammons and Johnathan Edwards made strong roster pushes.”
“Samuel Womack found himself in the mix as well, but has been working through an injury. Teams often roster six cornerbacks, but the Colts could keep seven in Anarumo’s defensive back-reliant scheme, which still leaves one to two of the aforementioned players on the outside looking in.”
Perhaps the Vikings will end the cornerback curse in next year’s draft, which is about eight months away. The team has accumulated several draft picks in recent days, and they’re long overdue.
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