Trae Waynes to Minnesota Vikings: Full Draft Pick Breakdown

The Minnesota Vikings chose not to secure any of the trade offers Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported they had received. Instead they selected the best player on their board. Whether or not that's true, it certainly sounds good, and it was clear they attempted to trade down with the thought of selecting Waynes in mind.

General manager Rick Spielman said of the pick: 

"

Some of the offers we could have potentially had to trade down. We didn’t feel the value was there. As much as you’d like to do some movement and things like that, when there’s a player that you covet and figuring how far you can go down and potentially lose that player, it’s not always good to make a trade to make a trade.

When Trae fell to us, we listened to a couple of offers and didn’t feel the value was there in our opinion and we got a very good player.

"

Athletic Model

Given what the Vikings have looked for in a cornerback in the past year, Waynes fits the model nearly perfectly. Only one cornerback ran a below-average 40-yard dash for the position (4.47 seconds), a player who was cut early last offseason: Josh Cooper. Jabari Price and Cooper were the only corners whose jump scores were below 154 combined inches (adding vertical leap and broad jump).

The Vikings' renewed focus on analytics may have helped drive this process, but it's a model they've seemingly wanted to follow for a bit longer than they've had a program for analytics. 

Player	40-Yard Dash	Jump Score (Inches)
Captain Munnerlyn	4.45	158.8
Derek Cox	4.39	176.5
Kendall James	4.4	159
Jabari Price	4.44	141.5
Julian Posey	4.46	170.5
Josh Cooper	4.65	146.5
Chris Greenwood	4.38	176
DeMarcus Van Dyke	4.25	154.5
Jalil Carter	4.38	162
Trae Waynes	4.31	160

The Vikings have in these acquisitions cared a lot less about short-area quickness except for corners designated to play in the slot position. After the pick, head coach Mike Zimmer had this to say about another parameter: "You can probably write down that we don't want a 5'9" corner."

Statistics

Statistically, Waynes doesn't pop off the page, despite the fact that he only gave up two touchdowns in the past two years. Lackluster interception production and very few pass breakups don't provide for many highlight reels, but Zimmer further clarified that it wasn't always interceptions that mattered. 

"Everyone bases Pro Bowl on how many interceptions you get...but my whole mentality is how many times do you deny your guy the football."

In that regard, Waynes provided solid if not spectacular help to a phenomenal college defense.

Interceptions	Pass Deflections	Yards per Coverage Snap	Passer Rating Allowed
73rd	78th	88th	19th

Scheme

Both Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman went out of their way to emphasize that their picks in the draft need to not just be good athletes or high character players, but schematic fits. Both of them feel that Waynes' experience as a bump-and-run player and in press coverage give him an advantage when adapting to the Vikings' scheme.

Cincinnati, which runs a defense very similar to Minnesota's even after Mike Zimmer left, picked Darqueze Dennard last year, so there may be some similarities to the Michigan State quarters defense and the Vikings' pattern-matching, more blitz-happy style of defense, though the similarities are not apparent in the coverage concepts so much as the physicality.

There are real worries when translating Waynes' game to Minnesota's defense, and he may have been a better fit for quarters or Cover-3 schemes in the NFL. His agility will make it difficult for him to deal with in-breaking routes, something he wasn't asked to deal with too much with the Spartans.

He's physical, however, and that's a requirement in the defense too, though his tackling technique could use work. He hasn't spent much time in off-coverage, but he has good balance and footwork as a player, and those skills should ease the transition into playing that kind of game.

His burst should give him recovery speed, but switching from Michigan State's unique style of zone defense to an NFL version of zone defense will require much better offensive recognition of route combinations and quicker reaction time when closing on the ball. Zimmer's version of zone defense includes a lot of man concepts in it, but it will often have the cornerback's eyes facing the offense instead of the receiver, meaning he'll have to close on the ball before it leaves the pocket.

At the very least, he should be an extremely good player at carrying receivers deep down field and staying in their hip pocket but preventing first downs will be the name of the game.

There's a lot of development he'll have to go through but a clean character and willingness to learn vaulted a player who was already high on the Vikings' board for his athletic ability. He should compete immediately for the starting role but should not be vilified for growing pains he may go through as a result of the significant scheme switch.

All workout statistics provided by NFLDraftScout.com