After the Vikings added a couple of starting-caliber offensive linemen in free agency and created more competition at safety, too, their biggest remaining need heading into next month's NFL draft is at wide receiver. While 22 players will be picked before they're on the clock, recent history suggests they can still find a difference-maker in the first round.
In this decade, standout wide receivers Dez Bryant, Demaryius Thomas, DeAndre Hopkins and Kelvin Benjamin are among the receivers who were snagged between the 20th and 32nd picks. Of the 10 receivers selected in that range since 2010, seven produced a 1,000-yard season within their first three years in the NFL, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The mercurial Percy Harvin, whom the Vikings drafted 22nd overall in 2009, fell 33 yards short of that milestone in 2011, his third NFL season.
Cordarrelle Patterson, whom the Vikings traded up to select 29th in 2013 after shipping Harvin to the Seahawks for a first-rounder and change, did not reach 1,000 receiving yards in his first three seasons combined.
Patterson has certainly been a disappointment the past two seasons. But given that he scored nine touchdowns as a rookie and is still one of the NFL's most electric kickoff returners, it is a stretch to label him a bust.
For example, Craig Davis, A.J. Jenkins and Jonathan Baldwin, three wide receivers picked in that 20-to-32 range in the past decade, did squat.
Still, more often than not, these late-first-round receivers have been able to contribute early in their careers. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, 10 of the 18 receivers selected between No. 20 and No. 32 in the past 10 years averaged better than 51 yards per game over their first two seasons. That included Harvin, who averaged 57.2 yards per game in 2009 and 2010.
So which wide receivers might tempt the Vikings at No. 23 on April 28?