The Daily Norseman Mock Draft Database, v8.0

We have some pretty prominent new additions to the Daily Norseman Mock Draft Database this time around, ladies and gentlemen. We're up to 56 drafts (having added two new ones and deleted one that hadn't been updated in a while), and while the trend is still largely in favor of the wide receiver position, the defensive tackles are making some strides.

California wide receiver Keenan Allen is pretty much lapping the field at this point, being projected to the Vikings in the first round in a whopping 17 of the 56 drafts in the database this week. That's more than all the other projected wide receivers combined, and nearly as many as all the defensive tackles combined. North Carolina defensive tackle Sylvester Williams is in second place this week with six selections, while Ohio State defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins and Clemson wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins are tied for third this week with five picks each.

The following players were in the first round of the database last week, but have dropped out after this week's update:

-Tennessee wide receiver Justin Hunter (though he does appear prominently in the second round)
-Florida defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd
-Connecticut cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson
-Mississippi State cornerback Johnthan Banks

Reappearing in this week's database after a one-week absence is Alabama defensive tackle Jesse Williams.

Now, on to the new additions I mentioned at the top. Kansas State linebacker Arthur Brown appears in the database for the first time this week. For some reason, Pete Prisco saw fit to mock Florida State defensive end Bjoern Werner to the Vikings (though I think the team is pretty well set at that position, more so than any other position but running back). Drafttek has Utah defensive tackle Star Lotulelei. . .a guy that was a lock-cinch Top 5 pick just a few short weeks ago. . .falling into Minnesota's lap at #23, which would be an amazing grab. I don't see it happening, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

And, yes. . .the folks at Next Era NFL thought it would be a good idea to mock a quarterback to the Vikings in the first round, because apparently they hate me and want to see my damn head explode sometime between draft day and the start of Training Camp. (Just kidding, folks.) They have West Virginia signal caller Geno Smith, the consensus top available quarterback in this year's class, falling to the Vikings.

Overall, out of the 56 drafts we have, 31 of them (55.4%) have the Vikings selecting a wide receiver in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Defensive tackle is once again in second place with 18 selections (32.1%), with the linebacker position bringing us three picks (5.4%). The cornerback position has two picks (3.6%),while the defensive end and quarterback positions bring up the rear with one selection each (1.8%).

With that, here's the database for this week:

And now on the graphics that everyone likes so much.

First, we have the standard donut chart, and you can see that Keenan Allen has a much bigger slice of the pie. . .er, donut. . .than everyone else does. At this point, you would think that it would be an upset if the Vikings picked anyone but Keenan Allen. As always, you can click on the picture to embiggen.

And last, but not least, we have the trend chart, where you can see players appear, re-appear, disappear, and take different percentages of the selections over time. If this seems a little bigger than last week. . .well, it is. It now stretches out to 14 weeks because I realized that 10 weeks wasn't going to get us all the way to the draft.

A couple of things. . .I put Star Lotulelei in place of Will Sutton on the graphs here because a) Sutton never actually declared and never should have been on here in the first place, and b) frankly, I'm running out of shades of red in Excel. Also, with a couple of new positions added, the color coding for both charts will now be as follows:

Wide receivers - Blues
Defensive tackles - Reds
Linebackers - Oranges/yellows
Offensive Linemen - Purples
Defensive backs - Greens
Defensive ends - Black/Grays
Quarterbacks - Brown/Tans

So, here is your trends chart:

And there is your Mock Draft Database update for this week, ladies and gentlemen. Feel free to discuss this week's findings in the comments here.

Also, if you're writing a mock draft out there (and you update it on a fairly regular basis), and you want it included in the database, just shoot me an e-mail. The address is DailyNorseman at GMail.

Enjoy your Saturday, everybody!