SB Nation Mock Draft: Why We Took Kyle Van Noy

So, in case you missed it, our second-round pick is up for the 2014 SB Nation Blogger's Mock Draft, and we made a selection that should be much more well-received than our first round pick. Then again, with as poorly as our first-round pick was received, I'm not exactly setting the bar at Sergei Bubka-esque levels or anything.

(Kids, Sergei Bubka's Wikipedia page is right here. Hopefully that will help that reference make sense.)

So, having gotten our quarterback with our first selection, we looked back to the defense in Round 2. The Vikings have spent a lot of capital in free agency this off-season on the defensive line, and have added a couple of pieces in the secondary as well. However, outside of bringing Jasper Brinkley back into the fold, the team hasn't done much at the linebacker position. The Vikings have a lot of young pieces at that level of the defense (Gerald Hodges, Michael Mauti, and OMG Audie Cole, among others), but the unit as a whole was such a dumpster fire last season, and there are a lot more questions than answers there at the present time.

That's why we went with Brigham Young linebacker Kyle Van Noy with this selection. Van Noy was a big play guy during his time at BYU, and may have actually been hurt by going back to play for the Cougars for his senior season. He probably would have been a first-round selection had he come out last season, but is now viewed as more of a second-round choice.

BYU produced the guy that went at #5 overall in 2013 to the Detroit Lions, defensive end Ezekiel Ansah. According to Van Noy's scouting report over at Walter Football, he actually taught Ansah quite a bit about football and played a pretty significant role in his development. He might not be as big as you'd like for a guy that, ideally, would be Chad Greenway's replacement at the strong-side linebacker spot in 2015, but he has enough explosiveness and versatility to overcome that.

Over the past two seasons, Van Noy has found his way to 17 sacks and 39.5 tackles for loss. He can get to the quarterback as a pass rusher and, as I mentioned earlier, he makes a lot of big plays. He could play on the inside or outside at linebacker, depending on the look of the Vikings' defense at a given time, or he could line up on the edge and come after the quarterback.

The Minnesota Vikings need some help (or, at least, some answers) at linebacker. I think we can all agree on that. With the way things have fallen to this point, Kyle Van Noy would be a great addition to the team's defense with the 40th overall selection.