That's according to the folks at the Great Blue North Report, anyway. They are constantly updating the draft order to reflect how things would fall "if the season ended today," and according to their most current projections, if the draft were held today, the Minnesota Vikings would hold the eighth overall pick.
As it stands right now (and since it won't be affected by the results of the Thursday night game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders), there are six NFL teams that currently have a record of 2-6. Those teams are your Minnesota Vikings, the Arizona Cardinals, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers, and the Seattle Seahawks. When a group of teams has the same record, the tie-breaker that is used is strength of schedule. The team with the weakest schedule gets the highest pick, while the team with the strongest schedule gets pushed further down the board. Here is the current strength of schedule for the five 2-6 teams:
| Team | Opp W/L Percentage |
| Arizona Cardinals | .472 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | .500 |
| Carolina Panthers | .515 |
| Seattle Seahawks | .520 |
| Minnesota Vikings | .581 |
By the way, that .581 strength of schedule for the Vikings is the highest not just among the teams that are currently at 2-6, but the highest in the entire National Football League. That's aided by the fact that if the season did end today, the three non-Minnesota entries in the NFC North would all make the post-season. But, thus far, the Vikings have played the toughest schedule in the National Football League through the first half of the season.
So, as we always say, we've got that going for us. . .which is nice.
In any event, as it stands now, the Cardinals hold the 4th pick in the draft, the Vikings have the 8th pick, and the other three 2-6 teams are slotted in between in the order listed above.
Just as a point of reference, as it stands right now, the folks at Drafttek have both Stanford offensive tackle Jonathan Martin and South Carolina wide receiver Alshon Jeffery available at the eighth overall pick in the draft. (They actually have the Vikings selecting ninth for some reason.) Either one of those guys would make an outstanding addition to the Minnesota Vikings' roster, in my opinion.