Garrett Bradbury’s impact and the supplemental draft
Long-time NFL analyst Tony Pauline recently did a mailbag today over at The Draft Network, which appears to be where he’s doing his work now, and in that mailbag he dropped a couple of interesting tidbits about our Minnesota Vikings.
The first one is a bit of a surprise, given the current construction of the Vikings’ roster. This past Wednesday was the NFL’s Supplemental Draft, and only one player was selected. That was Washington State safety Jalen Thompson, who was awarded to the Arizona Cardinals for the price of their fifth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Pauline indicates that he heard, but could not necessarily confirm, that the Vikings did put in a bid for Thompson on the supplemental draft, but it wasn’t the same level of pick that the Cardinals threw out there to acquire him. (Pauline speculates that it was a sixth or seventh round pick.) The Cardinals were higher on the priority list for the supplemental draft than the Vikings were, so Minnesota would have had to put a fourth-round pick on the table in order to leapfrog them.
Given the state of the safety position for the Vikings, with Harrison Smith, Anthony Harris, and Jayron Kearse at the position, it seems a little surprising that the team would have had interest in Thompson. On the other hand, the fact that Harris and Kearse are both in contract years and the Vikings are likely anticipating some low-round compensatory picks in 2020 might have led Rick Spielman and company to make a bit of a run at Thompson as a potential replacement.
The other bit is one that I think Vikings fans would be happy to see. Pauline is asked which rookie he thinks will have the biggest impact this season, and one of the two player he names is none other than Garrett Bradbury.
Obviously, this is something that we’re all hoping for. If Bradbury comes in and becomes an immediate hit at the center position, that should radiate out to the rest of the offensive line and improve what is, by far, the weakest unit on the Vikings’ roster. The Vikings don’t use a whole lot of first round picks on offensive linemen. . .at least, not in recent years. . .so they must believe that he’s going to have that sort of impact as well.
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