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First-year Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is a former Wall Street trader with economics degrees from Princeton and Stanford, so you had to figure he’d be a wheeler-dealer in the draft. That certainly was the case last week, as Minnesota executed six trades, bouncing up and down the draft board with noticeable chutzpah. But your loyal draft grader — who admittedly has zero economics degrees and has never even seen the movie Wall Street — had serious trouble understanding the rationale behind Adofo-Mensah’s opening salvo, a rare intradivisional deal with the Lions:
- Detroit received: Pick Nos. 12 and 46.
- Minnesota received: Pick Nos. 32, 34 and 66.
I know the various trade charts spit out various judgments on the move, but let’s get down to brass tacks here: Essentially, for the price of the No. 34 overall pick, the Lions got to move up 20 spots on Day 1 and 20 spots on Day 2. I’ll take the Detroit side of that trade all day long. Odd. Putting this procedural gripe aside, though, the Vikings did address a series of needs, starting with a serious infusion of talent into the secondary. Cine never got the pre-draft love he truly deserved because A) he played on the most loaded college defense in memory and B) Kyle Hamilton sucked up all the air in the safety room. But the speedy, instinctual deep-half defender is a heat-seeking missile against the run and a savvy zone processor against the pass. Booth’s a highly pedigreed cornerback with the physical tools to excel in press-man coverage; he could’ve been a first-round pick if not for core muscle surgery in March. Ingram could be a Day 1 starter at guard, a position that’s befuddled the Vikings for years. And Asamoah’s a rangy modern linebacker who should benefit greatly from serving an apprenticeship under Eric Kendricks.
