2022 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, v3.0

It’s still looking like a corner at #12

We’re back with this week’s installment of your 2022 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, where we track what draft experts around the internet are projecting for the Minnesota Vikings in this year’s NFL Draft.

In this week’s Database, we are up to 60 different mocks from around the internet, the vast majority of which have been updated or changed from last week’s update. In this week’s Database, you’ll see two drafts that are shown in italics. Those are drafts that project the Vikings to trade out of the #12 spot. Strangely, both of those drafts have the Vikings trading down to #20 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but those two drafts have the Steelers targeting someone different at #12. One of them even has the Vikings picking up the Steelers’ first-round pick in 2023 in order to make the swap.

So, without any further ado, here are the 60 mocks that make up this week’s Database. As usual, most of these mocks were found on the NFL Mock Draft Database website.

As you can see, the defensive backs are still dominating, as you’d expect with more and more of these mocks likely factoring in the signing of Za’Darius Smith and reducing edge defender as a need for the Vikings. Once again, LSU cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. maintains his stranglehold on the top spot. Stingley is mocked to the Vikings in a whopping 22 of our 60 mocks this week, which is nearly triple that of the next-highest player. Again, Stingley comes with some injury concerns, but is undoubtedly worth the 12th pick if the Vikings want him.

Coming in second once again is Cincinnati cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, who appears eight times in our Database this week. Washington cornerback Trent McDuffie has narrowed the gap between himself and Gardner a bit this week, as he appears six times. Andrew Booth Jr. of Clemson maintains the one selection he had last week, and one of our debuting players this week is Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam, who picks up one selection

Edge defenders still hold down the #2 spot, position-wise, in our Database for this week, but they’re down to just ten selections overall. Eight of those ten picks belong to Florida State defensive end Jermaine Johnson II, who could join teammate Janarius Robinson with the Vikings this April. The other two picks belong to Purdue defensive end George Karlaftis. Both Travon Walker of Georgia and David Ojabo of Michigan have dropped out of the Database for this week. That was expected for Ojabo, who suffered an Achilles injury at his Pro Day, but it’s worth noting that there’s one mock that has the Vikings snagging Ojabo with their second-round selection, which could be a pretty savvy move if the board fell that way.

Interior defensive line is still in third place, and once again all of the selections at that spot come courtesy of Georgia’s monster defensive tackle, Jordan Davis. Davis is mocked to the Vikings seven times this week, making him the fourth-highest player overall behind Stingley Jr. Gardner, and Johnson II.

The offensive linemen are still hanging on this week with three selections. Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum appears twice this week, while Northern Iowa offensive tackle Trevor Penning re-appears in the Database this week with one selection. This makes him the first player this year to drop out of the Database and jump back in. . .man, that only took three weeks.

Two new positions have entered the fray as well. Utah linebacker Devin Lloyd is mocked to the Vikings once this week, courtesy of one of the drafts that sees the Vikings trading down with the Steelers. And, in a bit of an interesting pick, one mock draft has the Vikings grabbing a wide receiver at #12 in the form of Alabama speedster Jameson Williams. It’s worth noting that Williams tore an ACL during the college football playoffs this year and likely wouldn’t be ready for the start of the 2022 season, but the Vikings might be deep enough at that spot to take that chance. I don’t know if it would actually happen, but I don’t think I’d hate it or anything.

Let’s go to the graphics for this week, starting with the donut graph that puts this week’s selections into one place. Once again, a lot of purple around the circle for this one.

I don’t see that changing anytime soon. If anything, there’s probably going to end up being even more purple on here by the time things are all said and done.

And, for the first time this year, we have the “Jell-o salad” graph, which shows players rising and falling from week to week across the course of the Database. I guess we can call three weeks a trend, right?

Also, as I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this over the past couple of weeks, you should be able to click on both of the pictures for the purpose of embiggening them. That should make it significantly easier to read.

That’s your update to the Mock Draft Database for this week, folks. . .we’ll be back next weekend with fresh data and a different look at what the experts are predicting for our favorite team in this year’s NFL Draft.