2021 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, v1.0

Well, kids, it’s that time of year again. . .time for yours truly to aggregate as many mock drafts as possible so that we can attempt to get a feel for what the Minnesota Vikings are going to do when the 2021 NFL Draft rolls around this April.

Yes, the best and most extensive Mock Draft Database focusing exclusively on the purple is back for another season! As we’ve done every year since 2013. . .with the exception of 2017 when the team didn’t have a first-round pick. . .we’re going to compile a ton of mock drafts to see how players are trending and attempt to get a feel for what Rick Spielman and company when it’s time for their turn at the podium.

Usually, we do a “pre-Combine” version of the Mock Draft Database but. . .well, the NFL decided that they weren’t having a Combine this year. So, today is as good a day as any to get it started.

We’ll start small, as we do every year, as this first iteration of the Database has 30 mocks in it. As we get closer to draft night, this will expand further until we get up to 100 different mocks, all with the Vikings’ selections and links for you to check them out. The Database will have the mock drafts from the “big guys,” like CBS Sports and NFL.com and those folks, but it also gives us an opportunity to highlight some of those draftniks that might not get the same level of recognition as those guys do.

So, without any further ado, here is the first version of the 2021 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database.

In our first Database of the year, we’ve got 15 different players projected to go to the Vikings at #14 overall, which is a pretty decent variance for a pick that’s so high in the first round, I think. In last year’s version 1.0, with the Vikings picking at #25 overall (before they acquired their other first-rounder in the Diggs trade), there were 21 players on the list.

Over half of our mocks in this first installment, 16 out of 30, are projecting the Vikings to bolster their defensive line with the 14th overall selection. Of those 16, half of them are pointing to Miami (FL) defensive end Gregory Rousseau as the selection. Rousseau is going to be an interesting study, as he only has one real year of college football under his belt. He played in two games for the Hurricanes in 2018 before red-shirting after an ankle injury. In 2019, he racked up 15.5 sacks and was named the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year and a Second-Team All-American. He then opted out of the 2020 season because of COVID-19 concerns. He seems to be a lock to go in the top half of the first round, however.

The other defensive linemen mocked to the Vikings in this week’s Database are Michigan defensive end Kwity Paye (4 selections), Alabama defensive tackle Christian Barmore (3 selections), and Penn State defensive end Jayson Oweh (1 selection).

Of the 14 non-defensive line selections, the offensive line picked up the most selections with five. They were divvied up between three players, all of which would provide some solid help to the Vikings. Those three players are Virginia Tech tackle Christian Darrisaw (2 selections), Northwestern tackle Rashawn Slater (2 selections), and USC guard Alijah Vera-Tucker (1 selection).

In a bit of a surprise, the next-highest position mocked to the Vikings is wide receiver. Four of our selections this week go to the pass catchers. Jaylen Waddle of Alabama got two of those four selections, and his teammate DeVonta Smith picked up one selection as well. The final WR mock went to someone with a very high “one of us” quotient, Minnesota star Rashod Bateman.

The linebackers picked up three selections in this week’s Database, equally divided between three players. One selection each went to Georgia’s Azeez Ojulari, Alabama’s Dylan Moses, and Penn State’s Micah Parsons.

And, because some folks know that this team is, in fact, coached by Mike Zimmer, two of our mocks have the Vikings addressing the secondary. . .again. Those two selections went to South Carolina cornerback Jaycee Horn and Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain II.

As is our wont, we will put these selections in graphical form in two different contexts. One of these, the trend graph. . .affectionately referred to around here as the “Jell-o salad graph”. . .will be added once we get a couple of Databases in. After all, one Database does not a trend make.

The other one, however, will be a summary of each week’s Database, and we have that one right here for you. As always, we put position groups together by using different shades of a particular color. Also, if you have difficulty reading the graphic, you can click on it and the picture will magically embiggen for ease of use. Yes, embiggen. . .it’s a perfectly cromulent word. With that, here it is!

That does it for our first Mock Draft Database of the 2021 draft season, ladies and gentlemen. We’ll try to make this an every Saturday thing up until we get to the draft on 29 April. Hopefully, I can get it up here earlier in the day than today’s was posted.