Vikings trade a troubling echo of uninspiring franchise draft history

On the night that their new front office would make its first draft pick, the Minnesota Vikings sold, at their party at U.S. Bank Stadium, a Laquon Treadwell bathrobe.

It is convenient when the setup to a joke contains the punchline. Saves time.

Obviously haunted by a discount bathrobe once allegedly worn by an alleged first-round draft pick, the Vikings on Thursday traded away the 12th pick in the draft for the chance to take more players whose leisure wear may be discounted in the near future.

They swapped the 12th and 46th picks in the 2022 draft to the Detroit Lions for three draft picks.

New Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah calls his work a "competitive rebuild.''

This move might not justify either word.

The Vikings obviously didn't highly value the players they could have gotten at No. 12. Maybe they were fixated on LSU cornerback Derek Stingley Jr, a surprise pick by the Texans at No. 3. Stingley was the most popular pick for the Vikings in many mock drafts.

What the Vikings' new front office did, though, was give up a chance at a premium player at No. 12 in exchange for a chance to build roster depth.

Roster depth is nice.

It's not the same as adding a star.

The Vikings could have taken safety Kyle Hamilton from Notre Dame. They settled for Georgia safety Lewis Cine.

The Vikings' decision will be evaluated in a simple way: Is Cine as good as Hamilton? And can Cine help stop Jameson Williams?

The whole problem with the Vikings is that they consistently have good enough players to be competitive, but lack the special player at the right position who elevates the entire franchise.

Trading down allowed the Detroit Lions, their division "rival,'' to take Williams, the Alabama receiver.

This means that the Vikings' worrisome group of cornerbacks will have much more trouble matching up with the Lions' receivers, one of whom, Amon-Ra St. Brown, kept them out of the playoffs last year with a late touchdown catch in Detroit.

Williams would have been a nice fit for the Vikings, who will have to replace Adam Thielen soon and can't be assured they'll keep Justin Jefferson long-term.

If only there were precedent for the Vikings playing three quality receivers together…

That's right - there is.

The Vikings didn't need a receiver when Randy Moss fell to them at the 21st pick in 1998. They had Cris Carter and Jake Reed. Adding Moss almost got them to the Super Bowl, and did get them to two NFC title games in three seasons.

Trading down this far with a division rival, without getting a better haul of picks in return, is puzzling at best.

Adofo-Mensah has impressed a lot of people inside and outside the organization with his intelligence and openness.

Neither personableness nor the use of advanced analytics matter if you don't make the right picks in the draft.

Teams hide behind the word "process,'' but they live in a world of results.

It's not hard to imagine Williams and St. Brown knocking them out of the playoffs again.

Adofo-Mensah, strangely, followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Rick Spielman.

Spielman loved trading down. He would rave about his ability to amass draft picks, then, at training camp, would brag that his roster was so strong that all of those extra seventh-round draft picks had no chance to make the team.

Since the Super Bowl years, the Vikings have mostly been stuck in neutral - too good to allow for a complete rebuild, not good enough to get back to the Bowl.

Adding lower draft picks to an eight-victory team with large holes at cornerback doesn't seem like a good way to compete or rebuild.

Aren't the Vikings ensuring that they will remain a middle-of-the-pack and behind-the-Packers team?

The Vikings may have gotten a good player at No. 32. They'll have to win at Nos. 34 and 66 to make this trade worthwhile.