As we get started in November, we are now complete with Week 8. The Vikings remain atop the NFC North, but they have lost their undefeated record after a road loss to the Detroit Lions. After such a performance, we wanted to look at what others thought of their work in Week 8 and beyond.
One of the people offering up their thoughts on the Vikings and their players is CBS Sports' Ryan Wilson. Their lead NFL Draft analyst looked at and graded every first-round pick from the 2026 NFL Draft in April. For the Vikings and their top pick, Caleb Banks, the rookie out of Florida earned an incomplete grade.
Wilson writes, "Minnesota knew Banks was a developmental prospect, but he's played just 25% of the defensive snaps and hasn't made much of an impact.
When healthy, his twitch, lateral quickness and ability to penetrate made him a lot of fun to watch at Florida. The problem? Once blockers get their hands on him, particularly on double teams, he struggles to disengage. Those concerns haven't disappeared, and his limited playing time suggests the Vikings aren't ready to trust him with a bigger role. I'm giving Banks an incomplete here, in part because we knew this would be a process, in part because Dallas Turner needed a couple of years in Brian Flores' system before figuring it out."
The Vikings usually bring rookies along slowly. For Brian Flores to do so with Caleb Banks makes sense given where things are going with the defense. They made the same approach with Dallas Turner so both Banks and Vikings' fans need to be patient.
This article originally appeared on Vikings Wire: CBS Sports grades the Vikings' top pick Caleb Banks through 8 weeks
