The Pittsburgh Steelers draft class of 1974 is likely the greatest of all time. Four Steelers from the 1974 draft are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including wide receiver Lynn Swann (first round), linebacker Jack Lambert (second round), wide receiver John Stallworth (fourth round), and center Mike Webster (fifth round). A fifth Hall of Famer — safety Donnie Shell — was an undrafted player signed by the Steelers that year.
Add to that group five other Hall of Famers who Pittsburgh drafted between 1969 and 1972 in the first through third rounds — QB Terry Bradshaw, DT Mean Joe Greene, RB Franco Harris, LB Jack Ham, and CB Mel Blount.
What an amazing stretch of drafting success that created the core players for the Steelers’ dynasty, which won four Super Bowls in six years from 1994 to 1999.
Day 2 and Day 3 Could Shape the Vikings’ Next Core
It’s what every NFL team is shooting for in team building, as the draft remains the best way to build a team with young, developing talent at a much more affordable cost than relying too heavily on free agents.
That’s been the problem for the Vikings in recent years and led to the firing of GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah this year.
It’s well documented that, entering the 2026 draft, the Vikings have only two projected starters who were drafted since Adofo-Mensah’s first year as GM in 2022, and both were first-round picks — WR Jordan Addison and LG Donovan Jackson.
This assumes Kyler Murray starts over 2024 first-rounder J.J. McCarthy and OLB Dallas Turner (the other first-rounder in 2024) continues to be the third edge/OLB behind starters Andrew Van Ginkel and Jonathan Greenard (which would change if Greenard is traded and Turner still will play a lot after leading the team with eight sacks last season).
The bottom line is there are no Vikings draftees past the first round from the last four drafts who are expected to start, with the caveat that kicker Will Reichard — a sixth-round pick in 2024 and a First-Team All-Pro last season — certainly was an excellent draft pick by Adofo-Mensah.
In fact, after the departures in free agency this year of former 2022 draftees Jalen Nailor and Ty Chandler, all 10 players the Vikings picked in the 2022 draft are gone (including, of course, the ill-fated picks of Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth as the first two Vikings picks that year).
This recent pattern must change and improve dramatically in this draft and future drafts.
Back to those Steelers in their dominant run in the 1970s — yes, they certainly hit on so many first-round stars in Bradshaw, Greene, Harris, and Swann. But there were Lambert, Ham, Blount, Stallworth, and Webster picked in the second through fifth rounds.
Think about the Seahawks with their two Super Bowl teams in 2013 and 2014. Key players included third-round QB Russell Wilson, fifth-round corner Richard Sherman, and fifth-round safety Kam Chancellor, all multiple-time All-Pros and Pro Bowlers.
Our great 15-1 Vikings team in 1998, which fell in the NFC title game, had 14 players we drafted who started, many after the first round.
In my years as Vikings GM and Titans president, we never wanted to miss on a pick in the first three rounds and certainly felt the pressure to make those picks count, with future starters and, hopefully, Pro Bowl-caliber players. I also had a standard speech I would make to our player personnel/scouting staff and coaches as we entered Day 3 of the NFL Draft.
I would tell them the draft is an inexact science and emphasize that there are Hall-of-Fame-caliber players in every round, and that we needed to identify and select such players in rounds 4-7. It will be proven in upcoming seasons that there are so many future starters, depth players, and special teams contributors who will make a big impact on their teams.
There will be Hall of Famers coming out of the late rounds who will join the list of the best late-round draft steals of all time. It’s a list that includes Stallworth and Webster from those Steeler teams along with these other Hall of Famers among many others — Cris Carter (fourth round), Steve Largent (fourth round), Jared Allen (fourth round), Charles Haley (fourth round), Kevin Greene (fifth round), Terrell Davis (sixth round), Shannon Sharpe (seventh round) and Richard Dent (eighth round).
Add to this late-round list of stars the likes of these All-Pros who are non-Hall of Famers but have a good shot to make it someday: Rich Gannon (fourth round), Amon-Ra St. Brown (fourth round), Richard Sherman (fifth round), Stefon Diggs (fifth round), George Kittle (fifth round), Tyreek Hill (fifth round), Jason Kelce (sixth round), Antonio Brown (sixth round) and Brock Purdy (Mr. Irrelevant as the last pick in the 2023 seventh round).
Of course, any discussion of late-round draft steals starts with the GOAT, who will soon be a first-ballot Hall of Famer — Tom Brady (sixth round in 2000 out of Michigan who is a seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, and 15-time Pro Bowler, all NFL records, along with owning virtually every career passing record.
So after paying close attention to the Vikings picks on Days 1 and 2 at No. 18 overall in the first round (don’t trade down Vikings unless it’s just a couple spots and you have several players rated equally), No. 49 in the second round and No. 82 and 97 in the third round, don’t discount the importance of the next five picks (a fifth-rounder, a sixth-rounder and three picks in the seventh round).
The Vikings need to hit on the vast majority of these later-round picks, along with their four picks in the first three rounds. It’s time for the Purple to get back to building through great drafting in the early and later rounds and by augmenting the roster with some key free-agent signings, without needing to sign so many expensive outside free agents, as they’ve had to because of insufficiently high-quality drafting.
Free agency always will be a critical piece of the puzzle as they’ve done in recent years with excellent players such as Greenard, Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Byron Murphy Jr., Aaron Jones, Eric Wilson, and that quarterback who won 14 games for the Vikings in 2024 and just won a Super Bowl in Seattle — Sam Darnold.
But the draft must be center stage in roster building with a much higher percentage of hits on picks after the first round, so more draftees become stars and sign second contracts with the Vikings, as was the case with Justin Jefferson and Darrisaw in the past two years.
