No pressure Brez...

The Vikings‘ 2026 draft will be Rob Brzezinski’s 28th in Minnesota; his appearance at the podium for a Vikings news conference Monday, April 20, might have been his first since the team opened its Eagan headquarters in 2018. Three days ahead of the NFL draft, he borrowed a phrase from his old boss, former Vikings GM Rick Spielman.

“The draft is the lifeblood of what we do, and so our goal is to get it right, and we will,” Brzezinsk said. “It’s an inexact science, but you give yourself the best chance by going through a good process and having good communication, getting it lined up the right way, and getting it lined up objectively. And, I mean, honestly, I think the board kind of falls to you.”

The brief mission statement echoed the approach Brzezinski has outlined since he became the point person for the Vikings’ front office when the team fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on Jan. 31. Brzezinski has spoken about guardrails in the draft process, designed to keep the Vikings from falling in love with a player who might be a reach or traversing the board with a flurry of trades designed to maximize value.

Instead, it seems, they are planning to identify a handful of players they like at No. 18 and either pick one of them or trade back if there’s enough supply to justify a deal that could bring back another pick or two to join the nine they already have.

If they do, in fact, follow a relatively simple strategy when the draft begins Thursday night, it could be because of how badly they need a draft class to deliver reliable results.

The Vikings’ 2015 draft had three players the team signed to second contracts — Eric Kendricks, Danielle Hunter and Stefon Diggs — as well as first-round cornerback Trae Waynes and fifth-rounder MyCole Pruitt, who fashioned a 10-year career as a tight end and H-back. The throughline from that draft to the Vikings’ success isn’t hard to draw; Kendricks, Hunter, Diggs and Waynes were all starters for the 2017 Vikings team that went 13-3 and reached the NFC Championship Game, with the help of All-Pros Harrison Smith (a first-round pick in 2012) and Xavier Rhodes (a first-round pick in 2013), as well as Pro Bowl choice Anthony Barr (the Vikings’ top pick in 2014) and Jerick McKinnon (a 2014 third-rounder).

In their 10 drafts since then, though, the Vikings have selected just seven players who have started at least three seasons for them: Dalvin Cook, Brian O’Neill, Garrett Bradbury, Justin Jefferson, Josh Metellus, Christian Darrisaw and Ed Ingram. Of those seven, Metellus was the only one drafted after Round 2. Ingram was the only one selected by Adofo-Mensah; Spielman’s final six drafts included 65 picks, with hits on players like Darrisaw, Jefferson and O’Neill mixed with misses on Laquon Treadwell, Mike Hughes, Jeff Gladney and Irv Smith Jr.

Since the 2017 NFC title game run, the Vikings have just one playoff win in three trips. In their last playoff appearance in 2024, draft picks occupied just eight of their 22 starting spots on offense and defense, with undrafted free agent Ivan Pace Jr. accounting for a ninth spot.

“Such a big thing in our league is having a path for your draft picks to play, especially your early picks,” Brzezinski said. “You want them on the field, and that’s ideal, but there’s also a world where you have to identify what the role is in Year 1, but also what the bigger picture is down the line. It’s always a balance, and what our needs are in 2026 and what our needs are in 2027 are two very different things.”

They have counterbalanced the draft futility with savvy free agency finds like Byron Murphy Jr., Harrison Phillips, Sam Darnold, Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman and Aaron Jones Sr., coaxing a five-interception season out of Patrick Peterson in 2022 and 15 starts out of Stephon Gilmore in 2024.

But the short supply of young, affordable contributors has sent the Vikings in an annual search for veterans, and their 2026 cap issues are exacerbated by eight-figure dead money charges for players like Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, the two defensive tackles signed in last year’s $300 million spending spree.

The Vikings enter the 2026 NFL draft with nine picks; if they keep all four of their top-100 picks, it would be the first time they would have selected that many players in the top 100 since 2022. If Adofo-Mensah saw the situation he inherited as being akin to the 33-point deficit the Vikings erased in their 2022 comeback against the Indianapolis Colts, though, the team’s age, cap commitments and dearth of young talent might not be much different four years later.

The former GM spoke honestly about the mistakes he made in that draft, trying to solve too many problems at once. Even last year, as the Vikings thought through different trade options, they guarded their picks with an eye toward having more draft capital than they did in 2025, when their five-player draft class was tied for the smallest in franchise history.

By starting the draft with nine picks, they have a chance to restock a roster that has been staffed with older players. If, for example, the possible retirement of Smith would lead the Vikings to overvalue a safety, Brzezinski wants a process that would keep them from boosting a player out of an overly optimistic view he could fill a need.

“When you have needs, you’re looking always glass half-full, and you’re going to see what you want to see in certain players where you have needs,” he said. “The process is just about being as objective as possible and having honest conversations.”

The veteran executive’s approach has made an impression on coach Kevin O’Connell, who again on Monday praised Brzezinski’s ability to lead and unify a staff.

“In many ways, there’s a lot of agreement on players,” O’Connell said. “And when there’s not, we find good outcomes, we find good solutions. And that’s a credit to not only our people but the leadership Rob has shown throughout this process. It’s been really fun, you know, to support him throughout that.”

No one has hinted, though, whether the draft is a dress rehearsal for Brzezinski as the Vikings prepare for their official GM search.

The task of truly connecting on a draft class for the first time in more than a decade seems too important for the Vikings’ focus to shift.

“I’m grateful for the support from the organization, starting with the owners, the football staff,” Brzezinski said, the closest thing to valedictory comments he would make Monday. ”[O‘Connell] has been a great partner. He’s a great friend. Couldn’t have been more grateful to to work this process with him and the coaching staff. I just feel like they’ve been so supportive, and that’s been awesome. It’s been a long process, and it feels like here we are at the at the home stretch. It’s a big week for us. Obviously, our goal is to get this right, and we will.”

STRIB