2016 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database: Pre-Combine Version

With scouts and general managers across the National Football League preparing themselves for the 2016 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis next weekend, it's time to break out this year's Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database. This will give us a bit of a gauge of where players stand now before we all get excited about how they look while they're running around in t-shirts and shorts both in Indianapolis and at their Pro Days as they come along.

For this first installment of the Mock Draft Database, we have thirty mock drafts, complete with links to those drafts. We have who they all have the Minnesota Vikings selecting at their various picks. Some of these mocks only do the first round, while some go out significantly further. We will continue to add more mocks every week as more outlets get into the flow of mock draft season.

Here are the thirty mocks that make up the first installment of our database for 2016.

I think that "Staff" guy has a future in this business. He sure does seem to get around.

So, how does this break down? Well, as you can see from the chart, there are two positions that dominate the Vikings' selections for the first round, and neither should come to a surprise to Vikings fans. Of the 30 mocks we have in our database right now, 13 of them (43.3%) have the Vikings taking a wide receiver, while nine of them (30%) have the team addressing the offensive line.

Breaking down the wide receivers even further, they're led by Michael Thomas of Ohio State, who with six votes (20%) is tied for the top overall vote-getter in our pre-Combine database. Arif has already put together a scouting report on Thomas for your reading pleasure. The second spot among the wide receiver is a tie between Josh Doctson of TCU and Corey Coleman of Baylor, each of whom received three selections this time around (10% each). Conveniently, there are scouting reports available on both of them as well. You can read Arif's breakdown of Doctson here, and his breakdown of Coleman here. The other nod to a wide receiver went to Tyler Boyd out of Pitt (3.3%).

From there, we move to the offensive line, where the selections are led by another Buckeye, in this case left tackle Taylor Decker. Decker received five selections in this pre-Combine database (16.6%) to put him ahead of the crowd. Three of the selections this time around went to Kansas State guard Cody Whitehair (10%), while one selection went to another offensive tackle, Jack Conklin of Michigan State (3.3%).

The linebacker position comes in third in our database for this week, and it's being carried by one player all by himself. Ohio State linebacker Darron Lee was the only linebacker named in this week's Database, but he received six selections (20%), good enough to tie him with Thomas as the top overall selection for this week.

There were two positions that each received one selection this time around. The defensive linemen are represented by Louisville defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins (3.3%), while the defensive backs are represented by cornerback Mackensie Alexander of Clemson (3.3%).

As you'd expect, the B1G is the dominant conference in this first edition of our database, thanks to the efforts of THE. . .dramatic pause. . .Ohio State University. The B1G represents 18 of our 30 selections this time around (60%), by far the biggest total. The Big 12 (which only has eight teams) is next with nine of the selections (30%), while the other three picks this time come from the ACC (10%).

So, let's move on to the graphs for this week's Database. As we've done every year, we have players at each position represented by shades of one particular color. Here's which colors represent which position this year.

Purple - Wide receivers
Green - Offensive linemen
Blue - Defensive linemen
Orange - Defensive backs
Red - Linebackers

If we have to differentiate within a position, such as between defensive ends and defensive tackles or between safeties and cornerbacks, we can do that when the time comes. For now, however, here is the "donut graph" for this week's Mock Draft Database.

Hopefully this new version of the "donut" chart is a bit easier to interpret, given that for whatever reason we can't "embiggen" pictures any more in the current format.

No "Jell-o Salad" graph this time around, and there won't be for a couple of weeks until we can get some "trends" established.

So, there's your first installment of the 2016 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, ladies and gentlemen. Feel free to get the discussion started on who you think the Vikings should take in this year's draft.