Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has three seasons of NFL Drafts under his belt and there are a lot of different things that we have learned over his tenure.
- Age matters in the top 50
- Power 4 schools only in the first six rounds
- Progression on how he's used athleticism profile
It's really interesting taking a look at all the data over his three years, especially with how things have progressed. The first year, the bigest takeaway was all about the 10-yard split, as they all had ones over the 80th percentile, with some close to 100.
Vikings draft strategy with Jordan Addison leads to Malaki Starks
The biggest shift over the course of Adofo-Mensah's tenure was the shift in how they viewed athleticism. The 10-yard split was en vogue in the first draft, but that was immediately replaced with a different style: GPS data.
The reason why GPS data is becoming more of a trend is due to the accuracy being better. We don't have a ton of GPS data available (even less publically), but that gives us a better semblance of how well a player moves on the field versus the athletic testing.
We got our first semblance of that when Adofo-Mensah talked about the selection of Addison in a press conference after the NFL Draft.
The ability to gain separation is the most important thing, and Addison does that well, but he uses accelleration out of breaks and savvy route running nuance to get it done. His athletic testing wasn't nearly as good.
This leads us to how his selection could help us project forward to the current NFL Draft. Edge rusher Dallas Turner, who was the 17th overall selection last year, had a very high score when it comes to his GPS tracking profile. The difference with Addison and Turner was the latter tested off the charts.
One player that has been consistently linked to the Vikings over the course of the entire draft season is Georgia Bulldogs safety Malaki Starks. He's got a great profile when it comes to tracking data.
It looks really good and that tracks with how he moves on the field. Starks is a very fluid athlete across the board and it shows up on tape. However, the athletic testing from the NFL Scouting Combine had a little bit of a different message.
That doesn't look very positive for Starks from a translation perspective, but the game film showed a really good athlete across the board and someone you can rely on to be a good player.
The consensus agrees, as with the Vikings first round selections across 564 mock drafts , Starks ranks second with 80 selections behind just South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori with 102 selections. Safety continues to be consensus across the board, and Starks fits the bill.
Don't be surprised if the Vikings end up with Starks on Thursday night.
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