MyCole Pruitt to Minnesota Vikings: Full Draft Pick Breakdown

By selecting MyCole Pruitt with the 143rd overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft, the Minnesota Vikings signaled an intent to commit to the concept of winning matchups.

Pruitt is a matchup problem and embodies the reason two-tight end sets gained steam in the past several years. They were initially popularized by Bill Belichick.

The Southern Illinois product has the ability to make defenses "always wrong" when he steps out onto the field because he can do so many things.

His forte is playing up the seam and winning with speed, threatening deep downfield, though his after-catch vision and power with the ball in his hands give him another dimension that many other tight ends don't have.

Either one of those facets to his game is new to the Vikings' tight end corps.

Robbed of his college speed by injuries, Kyle Rudolph has transitioned into being a spot-up tight end with fantastic possession ability and red-zone production. Meanwhile, Chase Ford is a jack-of-all-trades type who is a pretty good as route-runner and receiver, but not a threat in the same way that top tight ends are.

Rhett Ellison is a fantastic blocker, both in-line and as a fullback, with some pass-catching ability.

None of them have the ability to threaten downfield like Pruitt can, as he's one of the few tight ends who had an impressive performance at the NFL Scouting Combine this year.

His SPARQ score—a Nike metric designed to measure athleticism and adjust for weight—is estimated by 3SigmaAthlete.com to be the third-best in the entire tight end class and the best of any tight end drafted this year.

No tight end in the top 20 of 3SigmaAthlete.com's estimated SPARQ scores ran a faster 40-yard dash (4.58 seconds), and that kind of speed will dictate how he'll initially be used.

Traditionally, when an offense rolls out a two-TE set—often called 12 personnel because it has one running back and two tight ends, or "1-2"—the defense sets up in its base package, a 3-4 or 4-3 with four defensive backs on the field.

The reason that's important is that Pruitt should be a matchup problem, using his speed and agility against linebackers or his power against safeties.

It's rare to find a tight end with sub-4.6 speed—out of the 95 tight ends that 3SigmaAthlete.com's website has catalogued in this year's class, only Pruitt and Seattle's undrafted free agent, Will Tye, were able to accomplish that—and that kind of speed will make it difficult for teams to match up against him.

With that speed comes surprising sophistication as a route-runner, with excellent footwork and good deceptive capabilities—a series of head fakes and shoulder fakes to throw defenses off.

Should teams put a safety-linebacker hybrid out there or find a nickel package capable of dealing with Pruitt, then in theory, the Vikings could run the ball out of a traditionally run-heavy formation.

Pruitt can run tight end screens very well, too.

The Vikings tried that last year as a means of providing an outlet to the constant pressure rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater found himself under with an injured and underperforming offensive line, but Rudolph and Ellison couldn't generate many yards after the catch—Rudolph with 5.7 yards after the catch on short passes and Ellison with 6.3, per Pro Football Focus' reception tracking.

Charles Clay, the best comparison for Pruitt at the pro level, averaged 7.5 yards after the catch behind the line of scrimmage—while SPARQ superstar Luke Willson averaged 9.7 on those passes.

Pruitt's ball-handling and vision in those situations are excellent and should provide more hot routes in the offense to deal with blitzes as well as prevent defenses from cheating against the deep ball or the run.

In order to truly make defenses "always wrong," however, Pruitt will need to step up his run-blocking. He's not particularly good at it when lined up on the line of scrimmage, and he doesn't have much experience as a lead blocker.

His footwork, hand-fighting and drive need to improve in this area, though he does have some of the requisite strength to accomplish that.

Despite his explosive vertical leap (38 inches at 251 pounds), he's not much of a red-zone threat in the mold of Rudolph either—in part because he's not as good at boxing out and positioning for jump balls, but also because his 6'2" frame is unusually short for a tight end.

He could still add strength to his frame and his hands technique could improve, but for the most part, he'll be moved around the offense like an inverse Ellison—useful in every role, but majoring in receiving instead of blocking.

Combine information courtesy of NFL.com.