EAGAN, Minn. — During the pre-draft process, Dru Samia could picture himself joining the Minnesota Vikings.
The Polaroid shook out Saturday in the fourth round when Minnesota traded up from the 120th overall spot to 114 to tab the former Oklahoma guard.
"The conversations were always good with the Vikings, in particular," Samia said Saturday during a conference with Twin Cities media members. "I always got a good vibe from them, and my agent was always telling me the Vikings were high on me. Throughout this entire process, I was always thinking that Minnesota would kind of be the spot.
"I was even looking things up because I didn't know anything about Minnesota to begin with," Samia said. "Like, 'Where is Minneapolis?' and 'How much does it cost to live there?' Stuff like that. I'm very excited that it came to a head."
Minnesota sent the 120th and 209th overall picks to Seattle to move up six spots.
Samia (6-foot-5, 305 pounds) is originally from Sacramento, California. He began his Sooners career at right tackle, where he started nine of 12 games as a freshman. Samia shifted to right guard after the first game of his sophomore season and earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors.
He locked down the right guard spot the final two seasons of his career, which included All-Big 12 selections (Second Team in 2017 and First Team in 2018).
According to analytics site Pro Football Focus, Samia was assessed zero sacks on 391 pass-block snaps in 2016, 4.0 sacks on 421 pass-block snaps in 2017 and zero sacks on 410 pass-block snaps in 2018.
NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah predicted that the Vikings would address the offensive line with two of their first three picks, but it wound up being two of their first four.
"This guy has great value where they got him here," Jeremiah said. "Quick feet and hands. He was outstanding at the Senior Bowl. He's going to have a chance to now with Garrett Bradbury to give them a nice, young nucleus along that offensive line."
The Oklahoma offensive line was presented the Joe Moore Award in 2018.
Samia was the third of the four draft-eligible Sooners offensive linemen to be selected in 2019. Buffalo tabbed Cody Ford with the 38th overall pick, and the Los Angeles Rams tabbed Bobby Evans with the 97th overall pick. Baltimore then drafted Ben Powers, who also competed at the Senior Bowl, with the 123rd overall pick.
"It means the world. A lot of people come into college and they're like, 'We're going to come in and ball out and get drafted.' But it's rare that you can have that whole group do that," Samia said. "We're just blessed we had a great coaching staff and culture at Oklahoma and we were able to accomplish what we wanted to."
Keep tabs on the rest of the day with the **2019 Vikings Draft Picks Tracker**.
