EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The first seed of Rick Spielman's bold draft strategy was planted on April 26, 2012, when the Minnesota Vikings general manager sent the team's second- and fourth-round picks to the Baltimore Ravens so the Vikings could trade back into the first round and snatch a safety from Notre Dame with the 29th overall pick.
Spielman acquired the same pick in the 2013 draft to take Cordarrelle Patterson, and got the 32nd pick to select Teddy Bridgewater in 2014. But it was the move to get Harrison Smith -- in Spielman's first draft as the general manager -- that signaled how the Vikings would try to rebuild a franchise whose walls had eroded with age.