The Vikings whiffed on their first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, but they made up for it a bit by finding a first-round-caliber player at the end of the second round. That was the year GM Rick Spielman took cornerback Mike Hughes 30th overall and offensive tackle Brian O'Neill at pick No. 62.
In a new 2018 redraft from Bleacher Report's Gary Davenport, O'Neill cracks the first round by going to the Eagles at 32 (in real life, that pick was traded to the Ravens, who selected Lamar Jackson). That tells you a lot about the value the Vikings got when they took O'Neill at 62 five years ago. Hughes, who on his fourth team in four seasons, is obviously nowhere to be found.
If anything, it's easy to make the argument that O'Neill should go several picks earlier in a redraft. He's developed into one of the premier right tackles in football, making the Pro Bowl in 2021 and grading as PFF's No. 8 OT last season. Somehow, 49ers RT Mike McGlinchey was taken at 27 in this redraft, despite O'Neill being pretty clearly the better player at the same position.
In this hypothetical exercise, the Vikings use the 30th pick not on O'Neill but on a different cornerback: J.C. Jackson.
J.C. Jackson isn't a sure bet here. The former undrafted free agent tore his patellar tendon last year after signing a fat free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Chargers. But over his four years in New England, Jackson was one of the best in the game at taking the ball away. He had 25 interceptions in total, including nine in 2020 and eight in his Pro Bowl season the following year.
If Jackson fully recovers from last year's knee injury, he should reclaim his spot as one of the NFL's best cornerbacks. And he's light-years better than anyone the Vikings have now.
Last season was a weird one for Jackson, who was awful in five games with the Chargers before suffering a season-ending knee injury. However, his four years of high-quality play with the Patriots is a much more valuable sample size. Nobody had more interceptions from 2018 to 2021 than Jackson, who led the league with 23 passes defended in '21.
The Vikings couldn't go wrong with either Jackson or O'Neill at 30.
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