Levi Drake Rodriguez pick epitomizes value of the scouting process

The 2024 NFL draft is in the books, and we’re going to spend a lot of time and energy talking about the players who were taken on the first day. And for good reason, the Minnesota Vikings got their quarterback of the future in J.J. McCarthy, and their success is going to hinge on his development .

But McCarthy is just the tip of the iceberg, and the real meat-and-potatoes of the draft process comes on day three. That’s where teams find those players who will fill out their roster, and they hope they find some diamonds in the rough. One such diamond could be the Vikings’ seventh-round pick, Levi Drake Rodriguez from Texas A&M-Commerce.

In speaking about the selection to the press, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah stated that his selection is “Scouting in it’s purest form” and “one of his favorite things” likening the pick to a B-side of a single, like his favorite Queen song, “Bicycle Race”.

The Vikings lost a lot of defensive talent in the offseason, so Rodriguez will have an opportunity to make his mark on the team. As a seventh-round pick, he’ll have an uphill battle, but the scouting department believed in him for a reason. Now, it’s time for him to go out and show the rest of the staff what the scouts saw in him.