Do you know the positional favorite for the Minnesota Vikings to draft in Round 1 on Thursday night? A safety. Is drafting a Round 1 safety a death sentence? No, it is not. Can safeties easily be found from Rounds 3 through 7? Yes, they can.
Unlike any other position in professional football, safeties are easier to find in the draft’s later rounds. The Vikings must decide whether to invest 1st-Round draft capital in a spot that can be addressed relatively easily in Round 3 or later.
A safety is fine for the Vikings, but it’s not optimal team-building.
It’s not a cardinal sin to select a safety in Round 1; let’s get that out of the way. It’s just not difficult to snag from Round 3 to 7,
From 2012 to 2023, these safeties were chosen after Round 2 and later started 50+ games in the NFL:
You just read the raw list of mid-to-late-round safeties who latched on as starters. Here’s the comparative skinny:
Players Drafted from R3 to R7,Who Started 50+ Games in NFL,Per Position,From 2012 to 2023:
Safety: 38Guard: 34Defensive Tackle: 33Tight End: 29Wide Receiver: 28Tackle: 21Inside Linebacker: 20Cornerback: 20EDGE: 20Center: 16Running Back: 14Quarterback: 5
If you’re ever curious why a quality safety can be signed in free agency at virtually any time — even if the middle of the regular season on a random Wednesday — it’s because there’s some market saturation. Put plainly, decent safeties are not hard to find. Why? Well, they come from the middle and late draft rounds. Simple as that.
Are you big on Dillon Thieneman? How about Emmanuel McNeil-Warren? That’s actually great; there is nothing wrong with you, nothing wrong with your draft wishlist.
For example, if an idiot had published this article about Harrison Smith in April 2012, Minnesota would’ve missed out on a Hall-of-Fame-caliber or fringe Hall-of-Fame safety. The Vikings picked Smith 29th in 2012, and every moment has been worth it.
Or, more recently, the Baltimore Ravens drafted Malaki Starks in Round 1, and he immediately looked the part of a quality starting safety with staying power.
This article does not claim that safeties are bad. No one should frown if Thieneman is the pick. It’s just that good safeties, more than other positions, can be procrastinated to Rounds 3 through 7.
The Viking Age‘s Jaleel Grandberry on Thieneman: “Eighteen, of course, is where Minnesota picks, and while prospects don’t come off the board in the order of their ranking, this is a sign that Thieneman will likely be available for the Vikings, and that it would make sense for Minnesota to select him. Minnesota adding a player like Thieneman is exactly what the Vikings defense needs, and he would be a phenomenal weapon for Brian Flores to work with.”
“The good news for Minnesota is that if the franchise wants him, it looks like the team will have the opportunity to get him. In addition to his prospect ranking, Thieneman was recently projected to land with the Vikings in Mel Kiper’s final mock draft of the year. So as the draft approaches, all signs point to Minnesota landing Dillon Thieneman, and he’ll be a selection who should have fans excited.”
Finally, let’s pretend the Vikings’ executives and coaches already agree with this mentality — they decide to get a safety on Friday night or Saturday afternoon. The realistic draft board might look like this:
Per the list above, illustrating players by positional need, it might be wisest for Minnesota to pick an EDGE rusher or a cornerback. There’s a reason those positions are considered premium, and safeties are not.