2018 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, v2.0

My apologies for not having this up first thing on Saturday morning like I generally do. Usually I put this together on Friday night and set it up to publish on Saturday morning, but. . .well, this time I just didn’t. But, it’s here now, and there’s still plenty of time before free agency starts to discuss it a bit.

We are now up to 50 Mock Drafts in this week’s version of our Database, and there are quite a few that have been updated since last week’s entry. So, without any further ado, let’s take a look at th 50 Mocks we used this week.

This is just the third iteration of our Database for this season, and we’ve already seen 25 different players mocked to go to the Vikings at #30 overall in Round 1 of the 2018 NFL Draft. That’s one of the pitfalls to being so far down in the order, I suppose. . .you’re going to get a lot of variance and plenty of different names. I’m sure that number is going to get a whole lot bigger by the time we hit draft day in about seven weeks.

The offensive line, once again, has the most selections this week by a significant margin. Of our 50 Mock Drafts, 35 of them (70%) have the Vikings upgrading the Minnesota Moving Company (™ Paul Allen). Texas-El Paso guard Will Hernandez continues to lead the pack with eight selections (16%), but he’s got a couple of guys breathing down his neck in second place. Two offensive linemen each received seven selections (14% each) this week, as Ohio State guard Billy Price and Notre Dame offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey are popular choices for the Vikings so far. Texas offensive tackle Connor Williams was the only other player at any position in this week’s Database to receive more than two votes, as his name appears five times this week (10%).

Two other offensive linemen each received a pair of selections this week (4% each), as UCLA tackle Kolton Miller and Oklahoma tackle Orlando Brown each have multiple selections this time around. Ohio State guard Jamarco Jones and Georgia guard Isaiah Wynn each held steady with their one selection from last week (2% each). We also have two new offensive linemen joining our list this week, as Iowa center James Daniels and Louisville tackle Geron Christian find themselves in our Database for this week (2% each).

The only two other players that received multiple votes this week are both defensive tackles, as they pulled into a tie for the second-most popular position this week with the defensive backs. Six out of our 50 selections this week belong to defensive linemen. The two players that got multiple selections are Michigan tackle Maurice Hurst and Florida tackle Taven Bryan (4% each). Hurst held steady, while Bryan (who dropped from two selections to one last week) caught back up to him with a pair of selections. Alabama tackle Da’Ron Payne and Louisiana State defensive end Arden Key each held steady with one selection each (2% each).

As mentioned previously, the defensive backs also got six selections (12%) this week, but their selections were divided equally between six different players. Those players are:

• Auburn cornerback Carlton Davis
• Central Florida cornerback Mike Hughes
• Louisiana State cornerback Donte Jackson
• Florida State safety Derwin James
• Louisville cornerback Jaire Alexander
• Iowa cornerback Joshua Jackson

Alexander and Jackson are each newcomers to the Database this week. Our lone dropout this week is also a defensive back, as Colorado cornerback Isaiah Oliver drops off of our list in v2.0 of the Database.

Lastly, we still have the same three skill position players on offense that we had last week. Clemson receiver Deon Cain is still with us, as is Louisiana State running back Derrius Guice. And, since DraftTek continues to insist on mocking Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson to Minnesota, he’s still here as well. Each of those players holds steady with one selection (2% each).

So, let’s take a look at our graphical representations for this week, shall we? Here is the distribution for this week’s selections, represented by the “donut” graph, complete with each player’s percentage of selections. You should be able to click on the picture in order to embiggen. . .which, incidentally, was just added to the dictionary, so it’s an actual word now, y’all.

And now, for the first time this year, we have our trends from week to week. . .or, the Jell-o salad graph. A word of warning on this one (which you can also click to embiggen). . .for reasons I’m not totally sure of because my Excel-Fu is still sort of weakish, the players that were just added to the Database this week do not appear on the graph. Their areas are just sort of blank. I am efforting to figure out why, exactly, that is. If I figure it out, I’ll update the picture.

With that, your “better late than never” version of the Mock Draft Database for this week is up and ready for your discussion. More mocks will be added next week, I’ll start weeding out some of the old ones, and a good time will continue to be had by all. . .hopefully with two fully functioning charts instead of just one.