THE Vikings are down in the draft. By Chris Tomasson of St. Paul Pioneer-Press (in Twitter), the Vikings lost a choice in the seventh round in this year’s draft (No. 242).
“We made a mistake, we took responsibility and respected the league’s decision and we’ll move on” General manager Rick Spielman said in a statement.
According to Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com, the punishment refers to a 2019 offense. There was some kind of breach of a training team player’s contract, but it is not known who the player was or what the breach was.
Three Vikings executives were also fined $ 10,000 each, by Smith.
A few more draft notes from the NFL:
- Neither Saints nor Raiders will miss a draft due to violations of COVID-19 policies, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told ProFootballTalk.com Mike Florio. “They are not losing them,” McCarthy said. “No team will lose those choices.” According to the reporter, there were rumors that New Orleans would lose a choice in the seventh round after a “celebration of the unmasked locker room”, and the Raiders should lose one in the sixth round due to several violations. Although the NFL did not provide any context about his decision, Florio assumes that both organizations have appealed the penalties and have been successful.
- When the NFL announced the compensatory choices for the 2021 draft, the Patriots did not have a choice in the fifth round. However, a source confirmed to PFT that New England had indeed received a fifth round in the next draft. According to Smith, the NFL “noticed an error in calculating the complex formula for determining compensatory choices”, leading to the Patriots’ extra selection.
- Thanks to the compensatory choice audit mentioned by the NFL, the Falcons they are also moving two slots in the fifth round, according to Smith. In addition, although the NFL only allows 32 compensatory choices to be added each year, it has made an exception this time. Thanks to the additional choice of the Patriots draft, the Bears normally he would not have received that final compensatory choice; the NFL and the NFL Players Association allowed Chicago to maintain that selection.