After trading down to the final pick in the NFL draft’s third round on Friday night, the Vikings selected cornerback Mekhi Blackmon of Southern California.
Blackmon, 24, started in junior college, then played four seasons at Colorado, finishing with 87 tackles and two interceptions in 25 games — 19 of them starts. He transferred to USC for a pandemic season and finished with 66 tackles and three interceptions in 14 games, earning first team all-Pac-12 Conference honors.
Blackmon met with the Vikings at their headquarters in Eagan as one of the 30 players allowed by NFL rules to make daylong visits to potential suitors. He was a USC teammate of wide receiver Jordan Addison, the Vikings’ first-round pick, 23rd overall, on Thursday night.
Through Friday, they were the only players the Vikings have selected in this draft. They started the night with the 87th overall pick but traded it to San Francisco for pick No. 102 in the third, No. 166 in the fifth and No. 222 in the seventh.
“We were going to take him with the (No. 87) pick, but we got a good deal and we decided to take the chance,” Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said. “Obviously, it’s always treacherous; there’s guys moving off the board, guys that we were considering. But we’re really happy with what we got.”
The Vikings had a hole in their cornerback room after losing veteran starter Patrick Peterson to free agency (Pittsburgh) and releasing Cameron Danztler, a spot starter who played a lot of snaps when healthy.
The team signed veterans Byron Murphy and Joejuan Williams but are otherwise relying on young players with little experience for depth, including Akayleb Evans, Andrew Booth and now Blackmon.
“We’re just really excited with the flexibility that Mekhi brings inside and out,” Adofo-Mensah said.
Asked if the Vikings had designs on trading up instead of down, Adofo-Mensah said yes, but it didn’t work out.
“We kind of set plans and guidelines where, ‘If these players fall to a certain place, we’ll call with this deal.’ ” he said. “Obviously, you don’t know if somebody will accept that deal. But we had all those conversations.
“But credit to the league, I think the draft board went how the board was (anticipated to go), and there were no inefficiencies in the market, and there was nobody left that we wanted to go up that high for.”
Vikings 2023 NFL Draft Picks
Minnesota’s draft picks and remaining picks in the 2023 NFL Draft:
Round 1: 23rd, Jordan Addison, WR, USC
Round 3: 102nd, Mekhi Blackmon, CB, USC
Round 4: (From Detroit) 119th overall, (from San Francisco) 166th.
Round 5: 158th overall
Round 6: (Compensatory) 211th overall, (from San Francisco) 222nd overall
