The latest NFL Mock Drafts have the Minnesota Vikings GOING HARD at one position

AtoZ Sports

Tyler Forness discusses what he's discovered the trend to be for the Minnesota Vikings headed into the 2025 NFL Draft.

Transcript

00:00The NFL Draft is fast approaching and there's some fascinating trends

00:03happening with the Minnesota Vikings.

00:05What are they and what do they mean?

00:07Let's talk about it.

00:11The Minnesota Vikings are a fascinating team to cover,

00:14and it's getting even more fascinating heading into the NFL Draft.

00:18Free agency, they did exactly what they wanted to accomplish.

00:21They fortified the trenches on both sides of the ball.

00:23Will Fries and Ryan Kelly in the interior of the offensive line.

00:25Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen in the interior of the defensive line.

00:29What that ended up doing, along with the signings of Byron Murphy

00:32and Isaiah Rogers, was it fortified the positions of needs so much

00:36that they can kind of go in any direction they want,

00:39which also leads to fascinating trends when it comes to mock drafts.

00:43I'm the foremost expert when it comes to Minnesota Vikings mock drafts.

00:45I have collected 367 mock drafts since the beginning of the calendar year.

00:50Yes, 367 industry mock drafts.

00:53And I have a strict threshold.

00:55You got to know what you're doing in order to be included in this list.

00:59And one of the reasons I do that is I want to see how things change.

01:01I want to see how things grow, adapt, evolve over the course of time.

01:06And of those 367 selections, we have 11 offensive linemen,

01:11nine cornerbacks, eight defensive tackles, five running backs,

01:14five edge rushers, three safeties, one linebacker, one wide receiver.

01:18That one wide receiver is Travis Hunter,

01:21who was projected to go to the Vikings in January

01:24in one of the early mock drafts.

01:26It was a little weird to see him down that far,

01:28but we know how Deion Sanders Colorado program is viewed nationwide.

01:32It's not consistent.

01:33Some people really don't like the program.

01:36And therefore, the players kind of get the brunt of that.

01:40And that's why you have one wide receiver.

01:42But what's really interesting over the course of the last couple of weeks

01:47is how things have grown and evolved.

01:50Since free agency started, so just in the last two weeks,

01:54we have seen 20 different players selected.

01:57But what's really interesting is of the those total 367,

02:01300 of them were on defense, which understandable.

02:04Hundred twenty three, a cornerback.

02:06Seventy five of them at safety. Well.

02:10Just in the 76 of the last two weeks,

02:1537 of them, 37.

02:20We're at safety.

02:21The NFL draft community and analysts alike are really shifting

02:24towards the Minnesota Vikings, taking a safety.

02:27However, it's really interesting that they're being projected to do that

02:32because Kweisi Opometz has been on record saying, hey,

02:34I probably shouldn't have taken a safety that high.

02:37It didn't work out. Now look where we are.

02:40Is Lewis seen going to prevent them from taking Malachi Starks,

02:43who's been selected 36 times, 18 in the last two weeks,

02:47or Nicky Aminwori from South Carolina, who's been selected 37 times,

02:51also 18 of which in the last two weeks.

02:54Xavier Watts from Notre Dame was also selected once,

02:55but he's probably not going in round one.

02:57He's probably a mid round two, early round three kind of player.

03:01Will Kweisi Opometz do that?

03:03Will he want to take a safety?

03:05I think he's going to do what Brian Flores wants and how Flores is like to play.

03:09Three safety looks.

03:10Plus, those guys can play nickel.

03:13And that means that you can really focus on your outside cornerbacks

03:15and you can have that kind of versatility, which he loves to have that versatility.

03:20So it'll be interesting to see how it parses out.

03:22But it's clear that the shift is going towards safety,

03:27not cornerback, but safety.

03:29Is that the right trend?

03:31We're going to find out more how that trend is going to continue,

03:34because right now we have two weeks of data

03:35on that shift post beginning of free agency.

03:38Jade Baron had six elections and Siobhan Revel Jr. had five.

03:42So cornerback is still a priority for these mock drafters.

03:46Will it be a priority for the Vikings?

03:48Time will tell.

03:49But there's some really intriguing prospects,

03:51and we're going to dive into that throughout the rest of draft

03:55season here on this channel.

03:56And you're going to want to hit that subscribe button.

03:59I'm Tyler Furnas with AZ Sports.

04:01It's called Vikings.

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