Minnesota Vikings' Worst Draft Picks - Tarvaris Jackson

In my defense the question is misleading since the title of this post (and series) is Minnesota Vikings’ worst draft picks. There is no question that TJack was a terrible draft pick no matter how you slice it. Was he a bust? That answer is negotiable.

But there is no need to sugar coat it. TJack failed to meet the expectations of the franchise who drafted him. They drafted him with the hopes of turning him into the QBOTF and he never played consistently or stayed healthy long enough to reach that state of development.

If so, I’m feeling pretty good about our history of draft picks. My issue with Tarvaris is that we continued to invest in him even when it seemed clear that he wasn’t going to make it. Keeping Jackson instead of Rosenfelds after Jackson’s horrible pre-season was a case in point. At a certain point it felt like the Vikings were throwing good money after bad. I don’t think Jackson qualifies as a Worst Draft Pick, but he certainly wasn’t a good QB.

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The only thing that suggests Jackson is a bust, is because the Vikings traded up to get him….and they really didn’t trade all that much to get him.
In the end, Jackson is a late 2nd round draft pick that was good enough to compete for 4yrs…..certainly not worthy of the “worst picks list”.

Gets Turf Toe.

Nuff said.

TJax was a Turrible pick, is to know who was taken by the ‘Hawks for those Draft Picks.
If they were good/decent enough, I say absolutely. If they weren’t much better, he probably doesn’t deserve to be on here.

He was a bust purely based on what our assumptions of him were. We thought he was going to be our QBOTF and he turned out to be a roller coaster of a ride showing promise mixed in with moments where we wanted to just bury our heads in our hands.

Because I gave him more than the benefit of doubt and supported him to the end, and all he did was let me down and prove me wrong about him.

Bust? Debatable. I see your point, but he .500 as a starter (I think), started a playoff game, and did okay. Not grat, not Jamarcus Russell horrible, but okay.

But yeah, when you look at where he was supposed to be compared to where he was, you can make a case that he was a bust.

If this was focused entirely on whether or not he was a bust, I would vote “yes”, because, as has been said, he was intended on being the starter, and was given five years for it- oh, and we had soooo much faith in him, that we never drafted another QB afterwards (mind you, again, Webb was drafted to become a WR). I agree he was not properly developed, thrown into the fire wayyyy too soon, and was royally jerked around by the Favre mess. Not cool, and the best of luck to him where ever he ends up because of it- I harbor no hard feelings. But for a guy who was to be our QBOTF, and ultimately given multiple opportunities to do so- yes, he was a bust.

HOWEVER- this is about worst draft picks, no? Our crazy trade-up to snatch him didn’t cause us to miss out on anyone. As Chris pointed out, the only other QB who was better in that draft was Cutler- and quite frankly, seeing as how we took Greenway instead of Cutler in the first, I’m perfectly OK with that situation. Oh, and Jackson was drafted, I believe, fourth by us- yes, in the second round, but he was our fourth selection in the draft total.

Furthermore, there were some games we genuinely won at least partly thanks to him. He was pretty solid at the end of ‘08 and did a great job getting us into the playoffs. Granted, he choked in the first game, but he still got us there. Was he STELLAR in the games we won with him? Not really. Were there any games where I would point to him as the sole reason we won? Nah, not that either. But for me to put someone in the category of ’worst draft picks ever’, then we haven’t won any games because of that player, period. And I’m sure there are plenty of first and second round picks in our history that will qualify for that honor, enough that Jackson should never be included on that list.

He never pulled his balls out, always seemed meek on the field and almost grateful when he got injured and could hide back on the side lines.

With that said, he would not have had the negative impact on the team with Childress. No other coach would have sat on TJ for as long as Childress did, there is no way. I don’t even see how Childress could have done it unless Bevel and the rest of his coaching staff had their tongues so far in his o ring that no one was man enough to tell him TJ was terrible. Good God I hate Childress.

Honestly Chris, these are excellent articles, however I really think you should put Childress in there as the worst pick the Vikings have made, ever….