List of Minnesota Vikings first-round draft picks

This is a list of first-round draft picks made by the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. The Vikings joined the NFL in 1961. The Vikings' first selection as an NFL team was Tommy Mason, a running back from Tulane University. The team's most recent first round selection was Adrian Peterson, a running back from the University of Oklahoma.

Every year during April, each NFL franchise seeks to add new players to its roster through a collegiate draft known as "the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting", which is more commonly known as the NFL Draft. Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second worst picking second and so on. The two exceptions to this order are made for teams that appeared in the previous Super Bowl; the Super Bowl champion "always" picks 32nd, and the Super Bowl loser "always" picks 31st. Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof. Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades.

The Vikings have selected number one overall twice. The Vikings received the first pick in 1961 as an expansion franchise and then again in 1968 when the franchise chose Ron Yary, an offensive tackle from the University of Southern California. The Vikings have selected players from the University of Southern California four times and from Michigan State University, Ohio State University, and Oklahoma State University three times. Three eventual Hall of Famers were selected by the Vikings in the first-round: Carl Eller, Alan Page, and Ron Yary.

Player selection

Footnotes

References

*cite web|url=http://football.about.com/od/miscinformation/a/detdraftorder.htm| last = Alder | first = James | title = "NFL Draft Basics: Determining Order of Selection" | work = football.about.com | accessdate=2007-06-02
*cite web | work=National Football League official Web site | url=http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/teambyteam?team=Minnesota+Vikings | title=Draft History – Minnesota Vikings | accessdate=2007-06-02
*cite web | work=databaseFootball.com | url=http://www.databasefootball.com/draft/draftteam.htm?tm=MIN&lg=nfl | title=Minnesota Vikings Draft History | accessdate=2007-06-02
*cite web | work=Pro Football Hall of Fame official Web site | url=http://www.profootballhof.com/history/general/draft/index.jsp | title= Pro Football Draft History | accessdate=2007-06-02
*cite web | work=DraftHistory.com | url=http://www.drafthistory.com/years.html | title= Draft by Year | accessdate=2007-06-02
*cite web | work=Pro Football Hall of Fame official Web site | url=http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/teams.html | title=Hall of Famers by Franchise | accessdate=2007-06-02
*cite web | work=Sports E-cyclopedia | url=http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/minnesota/vikings.html | title=Minnesota Vikings | accessdate=2007-06-02
*cite web | work=NC Systems, Inc. | url=http://www.n-c-systems.com/football/index.html | title=Professional Football Transactions Archives | accessdate=2007-10-19