2022 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, v1.0

As promised, it’s time for the first installment of this year’s Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database! Usually we’ve gotten several versions up and in the books by now, but real life sort of got in the way of allowing me to do that this year. However, since this sort of thing is better late than never. . .at least, I think so. . .let’s get into our first Database.

We’re starting out with 40 mocks this time around. I wanted to do more, but there weren’t a whole lot of mocks that bothered to update themselves after the Russell Wilson trade. . .honestly, it was everything I could do to get to 40, and even a couple of those towards the bottom hadn’t accounted for the deal yet. Hopefully there will be more updated mocks by the time next week’s update comes around.

But, without any further ado, here are the 40 mocks that make up our first installment of this year’s Mock Draft Database.

There isn’t a lot of variety in this first Database, as there are just 10 players at four different position groups to get us started. We know the Vikings have a lot of needs, but it appears that the mock drafters around the internet have some very specific targets for the purple at this point in the process.

For example, 60% of our Database in this opening installment is taken up by cornerbacks. There are three different corners mocked to the Vikings this week, with two of them combining to take up more than half of the available picks by themselves. At the top of the list is Louisiana State cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., who comes in with 12 selections. He’s obviously one of the top cornerbacks in this year’s class but comes with some significant injury concerns.

Right behind him is Cincinnati cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, who was mocked to the Vikings 10 times this week. Washington cornerback Trent McDuffie appears twice in this week’s Database.

The next position up is edge defenders, which were mocked to the Vikings 12 times this week. The leader at that position is Jermaine Johnson, whose name appears six times this week. A Minneapolis native, Johnson could fit into the Vikings’ defense as either a 4-3 defensive end or a 3-4 outside linebacker, so he’d be a fit in whatever sort of scheme Ed Donatell wants to run.

Other edge defenders appearing in this week’s Database include Michigan’s David Ojabo (4 selections), Georgia’s Travon Walker (1 selection) and Purdue’s “Greek Freak,” George Karlaftis (1 selection).

The interior defensive line received two selections this week, both of them coming courtesy of Jordan Davis out of Georgia. Davis put on a freakish Combine workout for a player his size and, as a result, might not even make it to Minnesota’s pick at #12.

Finally, as is tradition, we have two offensive linemen in the Database this week for the Vikings. Those picks come in the form of Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum and Northern Iowa offensive tackle Trevor Penning, each of whom garnered one selection this week.

No quarterbacks mocked to the Vikings at #12 in any of the drafts that make up our Database this week. I’m sure that won’t cause anyone to be alarmed or get angry.

With that, we’re on to the graphics. . .or, in this case, graphic, as there’s no “trend” graph for this week. After all, one week does not a trend make. However, we do have this week’s donut graph, which you can see below.

As always, we’ve got the different position groups sectioned off by color, with each player getting a slightly different shade. I’ll be differentiating between edge defenders and interior defensive linemen, which I don’t believe is something I’ve done in the past. If we get more position groups involved, they’ll each get different colors as well.

But that’s the first Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database of 2022, ladies and gentlemen. As I said in the opening, hopefully next week we’ll be able to get a significant increase in the number of mocks and attempt to get a more accurate reflection of what draftniks everywhere are projecting for our favorite football team in Round 1 of this year’s selection meeting.