Vikings release footage from virtual draft room

Given the news that’s come down about the Minnesota Vikings over the course of this Monday, we could probably use a little bit of a pick-me-up. Thankfully, the Vikings have been kind enough to provide one.

The Vikings have just released a video on their website that gives us an inside look at how they conducted this year’s “virtual” NFL Draft. You can see that video below.

The video starts before the announcement that the draft would be conducted from the homes of the various team staffs, with Rick Spielman and Jamaal Stephenson attending this year’s Scouting Combine. From there, the really interesting part starts.

We get to see the Vikings conducting some mock drafts of their own, going a scenario that they may have encountered on draft night. The scenario sees them giving up a first-round pick and a third-round pick (#25 and #89) to move up to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ selection at #9 overall. Unfortunately, it doesn’t reveal who the Vikings would have taken in that scenario, but it’s cool that they show it anyway.

After a bit of Spielman’s pre-draft presser, we are on to draft night and the Vikings’ brass discussing what they want to do with the 22nd overall pick. As you probably guessed, the debate was whether they wanted to take a receiver or a cornerback. Judging from the conversation after the Philadelphia Eagles took wide receiver Jalen Reagor right before their selection, the group appears to be pleasantly surprised that Justin Jefferson is still on the board. . .you know, like the rest of us were.

We get the reactions to the Jefferson pick from Spielman, Mike Zimmer, Gary Kubiak, and some family members, and it’s pretty cool to see, to be honest. I liked this exchange between Spielman and Zimmer:

Spielman: “We got the receiver, we don’t need any defensive guys.”

Zimmer: “Nah, I’m used to it.”

The video then goes on to the Vikings’ next pick at #25. You can see from this video that the Vikings were ready to take Jeff Gladney at their original spot, as Spielman tells the Vikings’ technical folks to “get Gladney on the phone just in case.” But, we see him making the deal with the San Francisco 49ers to drop down to #31.

Then the Gladney pick is made, and Gladney tells Spielman that he’s been “waiting for y’all to call.” It’s not as long as Jefferson’s portion of the video, but still a pretty great moment.

That covers the first half of the video or so. . .you can check out the rest of the video for yourselves.

It’s great that the Vikings do this sort of thing to let us take a peek behind the curtain at how the team conducted its business during a truly unique moment in team history. Thanks to the team for putting this out there for us.