Todd McShay Mock Draft: ESPN analyst has Vikings selecting Billy Price

It’s the offseason, and the 2018 NFL Scouting Combine is officially in the books, which means that the mock drafts are going to start coming fast and furious. We’ve got a ton of them for you in our Mock Draft Database, obviously, but we’re finally starting to see a few from the folks from Bristol.

Todd McShay has just released his latest mock draft and, like so many mocks we’ve seen thus far, he has the Minnesota Vikings continuing the upgrade on the offensive line with the selection of Ohio State center Billy Price.

Here’s what McShay had to say about the selection from behind the great E$PN paywall:

One way or another, Minnesota will solve its starting QB situation through free agency. With that in place, there aren’t a lot of holes on this roster. Minnesota had great success with 2017 third-round pick Pat Elflein, so they go back to the Buckeyes well here. Price tore his pec at the combine and underwent surgery, but he should be fine for training camp. He’s an experienced starter with great character, and could be an immediate upgrade.

As McShay mentions, Price did suffer a torn pectoral muscle at the Combine, an injury he suffered during the bench press portion of the workouts.

I know that I’ve mentioned Price’s talents in this space before, but he does have a pretty outstanding resume. He won the Rimington Award this past season, given to the best center in college football. He was the second consecutive Ohio State Buckeye to win the award, following in Elflein’s footsteps, but prior to that started plenty of games at the guard spot for Ohio State. That’s, presumably, where he would plug in with the Vikings, as I don’t think the team would be inclined to move Elflein to guard and start Price at center in this scenario.

If the Vikings were to draft an interior lineman like Price, it might signal that they’re planning on putting Mike Remmers back at the right tackle spot for next season. Remmers played the Vikings’ last three games at left guard with Rashod Hill manning the right tackle spot, and in the playoffs that didn’t go terribly well as the Vikings surrendered 45 quarterback pressures in two postseason games. I still think that Remmers’ best fit is right tackle, but I’m not a coach or anything and don’t see what they see.

What do you think of McShay’s pick for the Vikings in this particular mock? Should the pectoral injury scare the Vikings off a bit?