2016 NFL Draft: What Exactly, Happened To The Vikings In Round Six?

The sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft was, to say the least, an interesting one for the Minnesota Vikings.

It started with the selection of German wide receiver Moritz Böhringer with the 180th overall selection. He became the first European player to be drafted into the National Football League without playing in a college in North America. I'm sure we're going to be hearing much more about him in the time to come.

That by itself would have been interesting enough. . .but the Vikings were projected to pick again in the sixth round after the Böhringer selection, and that's where things got a little weird. To get the whole story, we have to go back to Round 3.

When the Vikings got on the board at the end of the third round, selection #86 overall, the Miami Dolphins decided that they wanted to trade up with the Vikings to acquire Rutgers wide receiver Leonte Carroo. So, the Vikings made that deal with them, acquiring a 2017 third-round pick, a conditional 2017 fourth-round pick, and the Dolphins' sixth-round pick in this year's draft, #186 overall.

After the Böhringer selection, the Vikings were getting ready to pick again at that 186th pick. The Dolphins decided that they wanted to move up to that spot again. As a result, the Vikings essentially wound up selling the Dolphins' original pick back to them for the Dolphins' lower sixth-round pick, #196 overall, and their seventh-round pick at #227. Miami then used that pick to select another wide receiver in Jakeem Grant.

Next, rather than picking at #196 overall, the Vikings decided that they wanted to move back up. They proceeded to make a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles at #188, sending the Eagles pick #196 (that they had just acquired from the Dolphins) and pick #240, a seventh-round pick that they had gotten from the Buffalo Bills in the trade involving former Vikings' quarterback Matt Cassel. The Vikings used that pick to select Texas-San Antonio tight end David Morgan.

There wasn't a whole lot of information available on the deals to start with, and it was confusing enough seeing the Dolphins trade back up into a selection that they originally owned in the first place. Essentially, what the Vikings did was

-Move down two spots in Round 6 (from 186 to 188)
-Move up thirteen spots in Round 7 (from 240 to 227)
-Pick up two mid-round picks in the 2017 NFL Draft from Miami (third round pick, conditional fourth round pick)

There's your final explanation of everything that happened in Round Six of the 2016 NFL Draft for the Vikings.