10 most valuable draft picks from the Minnesota Vikings of the past decade

Since 2012, the Vikings have had the same general manager: Rick Spielman.

In fact, Spielman was hired by the Vikings in 2006 as vice president of player personnel and later became the team’s first real general manager since the 1980s, according to NFL.com. With Minnesota, Spielman and Co. have become well known for their ability to find valuable players in the NFL draft.

Hopefully for the Vikings, the 2020 draft will be no different. The team had 15 draft picks in total, a record for a seven-game NFL draft. They will likely need at least some of these choices to produce and become beginners in order to progress next season.

Spielman and the Vikings found value both in the opening rounds and with some of the final picks in the NFL draft. Here are his biggest successes, in terms of approximate career value, as determined by Pro Football Reference.

Pro Football Reference’s approximate career value statistic isn’t perfect, but it’s at least OK to say which players were good choices for the Vikings.