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Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

The Vikings have talent at defensive back, with Xavier Rhodes and Harrison Smith as rising stars in the secondary. Unfortunately, paired with those players are a number of names who don't draw excitement.

Robert Blanton or Andrew Sendejo could start at safety if cornerback converts Shaun Prater and Antone Exum don't prove they can. Perennial underachiever Taylor Mays could push as well, but that doesn't necessarily bode well for the safety group.

At cornerback, Captain Munnerlyn had the worst season of his career, which included the worst game of his life. Josh Robinson had a similar year in 2013, though his 2014 was much improved.

With that in mind, it may make sense for the Vikings to forgo the possibility of trading down in favor of grabbing a defensive back early. Given the system fits of some of the top defensive backs and their weaknesses, the Vikings would do better waiting, especially because the talent in this draft is very good.

Trae Waynes has been at the top of the cornerback pile for major draft media for some time, and though he is talented, his tape doesn't seem to reveal a player with the systemic requirements to fit in a Mike Zimmer scheme.

A fantastic talent, Waynes would be great in a Cover 3 system like Seattle or Jacksonville's, but his talents don't fit a cornerback who needs to follow receivers across different routes like they would in other systems. Michigan State's former defensive coordinator, Pat Narduzzi, described the defense as a zone defense with man principles, which lets cornerbacks pass off receivers who break inside to linebackers and safeties covering the interior.

Even in blitzes, Michigan State preferred zone pressure, and their zone design had corners rarely take in-breaking routes, which is not ideal for Zimmer defenses. Not only that, Waynes hasn't showed much ability to take on those responsibilities when he had them.

The top safety on most boards, Landon Collins, is an excellent box safety in traditional schemes that have strong safeties take on run support and tight ends in coverage, but his versatility is limited, and he can't play deep. Harrison Smith's expanding responsibilities require a dynamic safety to partner with him, even if he doesn't have to be elite.

Either player would do well for a lot of teams and could mean value, but fitting a square peg into a round hole doesn't work for most defenses and wouldn't for the Vikings. Panicking to select a player who doesn't fit isn't the right answer to having other players who don't fit.