2018 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, v4.0

It’s Saturday, ladies and gentlemen, and that means it’s time for the latest installment of your Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database. This time around, we are up to 70 Mock Drafts that are tracking what the purple and gold are projected to do in this year’s NFL Draft, and one position group continues to dominate the field, as we’ve come to expect.

So, without further delay, let’s take a look at the mocks that comprise this week’s version of our Database. Half of them are dated after last week’s version, so we’ll see just how much things are altered.

As it has since the start of this year’s Database, the offensive line continues to be the position of focus for most pundits that are doing their projections for the Vikings in April. Of the 70 selections in this week’s Database, 44 of them are looking at the offensive line (62.9%). In a big shift from last week’s Database, however, one player is nearly lapping the field. Texas-El Paso guard Will Hernandez, who has been near the top of our Database the entire offseason, is now crushing the competition. With 15 selections this week (21.4%), he has nearly twice the number of selections as the second-highest player, Ohio State offensive lineman Billy Price. Price has 8 selections this week (11.4%), so you can see he’s way behind Hernandez right now.

Notre Dame offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey holds on to the third spot with six selections in this week’s Database (8.6%), while Texas offensive tackle Connor Williams and UCLA offensive tackle Kolton Miller are tied with four selections each (5.7% each). Here’s how the rest of the offensive linemen fared this week:

• Oklahoma tackle Orlando Brown - 2 selections (2.9%)
• Georgia guard Isaiah Wynn - 2 selections (2.9%)
• Ohio State offensive lineman Jamarco Jones - 2 selections (2.9%)
• Louisville tackle Geron Christian - 1 selection (1.4%)

Iowa center James Daniels dropped out of this week’s version of the Database after appearing in previous weeks.

Even after the Vikings’ signing of Sheldon Richardson in free agency, the defensive line continues to be the second-most popular position projected to Minnesota in this year’s draft. The d-linemen received a total of 12 selections this week (17.1%), but they’re spread out among numerous players. Only two defensive linemen received multiple selections in this week’s Database, as Florida defensive tackle Taven Bryan and Michigan defensive tackle Maurice Hurst each appear three times this week (4.3% each).

There are several new names appearing in our database at the defensive line spots this week, as a trio of edge rushers have added their names to the list of players that have appeared at the #30 spot since Mock Draft season began. All of the following players received one selection (1.4% each) in this week’s version of our Database:

• Alabama defensive tackle Da’Ron Payne
• North Carolina State defensive tackle B.J. Hill
• Washington defensive tackle Vita Vea
• Boston College defensive end Harold Landry (new addition)
• Ohio State defensive end Sam Hubbard (new addition)
• Georgia defensive end Lorenzo Carter (new addition)

Louisiana State defensive end Arden Key has dropped out of this week’s Database.

The defensive backs are continuing their relatively strong showing as well, as they appear ten times in this week’s Database (14.3%). They are led by Central Florida cornerback Mike Hughes, who this week received the most selections of any non-offensive lineman in our Database. Hughes’ name appears five times this week (7.1%), which gives him the same number of selections as all of the other defensive backs in our database this week combined. The only other defensive back to receive multiple selections this week is Iowa cornerback Joshua Jackson, whose name appears twice (2.9%). Auburn cornerback Carlton Davis, Louisville cornerback Jaire Alexander, and Florida State safety Derwin James also appear one time each in this week’s Database (1.4%).

The only other new name we have in the Database this week belongs to a tight end. Penn State tight end Mike Gesicki becomes the third pass catcher to appear in our Database this season, as he appeared once in the Database this week (1.4%). That ties him with Clemson receiver Deon Cain and South Dakota State tight end Dallas Goedert among pass catchers in the Database for this season.

Derrius Guice continues to be the only running back in the Database thus far, as he continues to hold on to his one selection (1.4%). And, for the first time in this year’s Database, there are no sites projecting the Vikings to draft a quarterback, as DraftTek has finally figured out that likely isn’t happening.

With that, we are now up to 33 different players that have been projected to the Vikings in the 2018 NFL Draft. I’m not sure how many more players will be added in the next month, but however many there are, we’ll make room for them.

Let’s bring you our graphic representation of the data we’ve presented for this week. As always, we start with the donut graph, which shows us the breakdown of the players that appear in this week’s version of our Database. Feel free to click on the picture if you wish for it to be embiggened.

The offensive line is represented by the various shades of purple, and as they have since the beginning, they have a huge piece of our donut thus far. I don’t think there’s any real reason to expect that to change, since the offensive line remains the weakest point on the Vikings’ roster as things stand right now.

We also have the “Jell-o salad” graph for this week, which shows how the various players have risen and fallen over the course of the five weeks (counting our pre-Combine version) that we’ve been putting this year’s Database together. Again, a whole lot of purple appears on this graph, and you can see it kind of crowding out the rest of the colors for the various other position groups.

I know there was a suggestion last week for a “stacked bar” graph, and unfortunately I haven’t had a lot of time to play around with the Database this week. I’ll see if I can’t make something happen along those lines for inclusion in next week’s Database.

That concludes Version 4.0 of this year’s Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, folks. Enjoy the mocks and we’ll be back again next week with Version 5.0!