Spielman’s Trades Held True To Draft Chart

This was originally expressed by the Purple Post account on the Twitter machine, but I wanted to actually put the numbers to it.

In the 2017 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings were involved in seven separate trades, the most trades in any draft since current General Manager Rick Spielman took over the reigns. It certainly made for an exciting weekend for fans of the purple, but how much did it benefit the Vikings?

Well, it appears that Spielman got some pretty good value out of all the trades he made over draft weekend. At least, he did if you look at the age-old trade value chart that teams have been using for years.

Looking at the chart, the Vikings went into the 2017 NFL Draft with 912.4 “points” worth of draft picks, broken down as follows:

1. Round 2, Pick 48 - 420 points
2. Round 3, Pick 79 - 195 points
3. Round 3, Pick 86 - 160 points
4. Round 4, Pick 120 - 54 points
5. Round 4, Pick 128 - 44 points
6. Round 5, Pick 160 - 27 points
7. Round 6, Pick 199 - 11.4 points
8. Round 7, Pick 232 - 1 point

After the smoke cleared and the dust settled on draft weekend, the Vikings wound up making selections that were worth 914 “points.”

1. Round 2, Pick 41 (Dalvin Cook) - 490 points
2. Round 3, Pick 70 (Pat Elflein) - 240 points
3. Round 4, Pick 109 (Jaleel Johnson) - 74 points
4. Round 4, Pick 120 (Ben Gedeon) - 54 points
5. Round 5, Pick 170 (Rodney Adams) - 23 points
6. Round 5, Pick 180 (Danny Isidora) - 14 points
7. Round 6, Pick 201 (Bucky Hodges) - 10.6 points
8. Round 7, Pick 219 (Stacy Coley) - 3.4 points
9. Round 7, Pick 220 (Ifeadi Odenigbo) - 3 points
10. Round 7, Pick 232 (Elijah Lee) - 1 point
11. Round 7, Pick 245 (Jack Tocho) - 1 point

So, with all the deals that Spielman made over the course of the past three days, he held just about as close to the value of the picks as possible. Of course, winding up with 11 draftees rather than eight gives them more opportunities to hit on players, but otherwise the Vikings got solid value from the trades they made over the course of draft weekend. It certainly doesn’t appear that they got “taken” or anything in the midst of making all those deals.