Inside The Vikings

One Former Vikings Third-Rounder Intercepts Another in HOF Game

In ex-Vikings news, Kellen Mond threw a pick right to Chazz Surratt in the NFL's preseason opener.

Will Ragatz

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Call it 2021 Vikings third-round pick on 2021 Vikings third-round pick crime.

In the first half of the Hall of Fame Game — the NFL's preseason opener in Canton, OH on Thursday night — Browns quarterback Kellen Mond threw an interception directly into the hands of Jets linebacker Chazz Surratt.

What a world.

It was just two years ago when the Vikings took Mond and Surratt in the same round of the same draft. Mond, a QB out of Texas A&M, was the 66th overall pick. Surratt, a raw, athletic linebacker out of North Carolina, was taken 12 spots later at No. 78.

Neither made it to a second season with the franchise. 

The 2021 draft was the final one for the Rick Spielman-Mike Zimmer regime, as Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell were hired as their replacements following that season. Thus, it wasn't too shocking to see the new regime part ways with many players from the previous one.

Mond struggled mightily in two preseasons and drew an infamously brutal quote from Zimmer towards the end of his rookie season. Surratt was also a pretty instant bust. Those two, along with fellow third-round draftee Wyatt Davis, were cut before the start of the 2022 campaign. Out of the four picks Spielman and company made in that 2021 third round, only Patrick Jones II is still on the roster today.

To be fair, Spielman did select Christian Darrisaw in the first round that year, which was a home-run pick. But to have four third-round selections (two of which were gained in a first-round trade back) and completely whiff on three of them is a tough look.

That wasn't a great throw by Mond, but he did finish 13 of 19 for 92 yards with a touchdown and the INT in the first half. And maybe Surratt is starting to figure things out in New York?

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