2023 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database, v2.0

Moving along through the pre-draft season

We are back with installment number two of our 2023 Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Database (after a slight delay). As we do every year, we will continue expanding the number of mocks we include in our Database each week as we get closer to this year’s NFL Draft in an effort to see who the really smart people think that our favorite team will be calling on from the podium in Kansas City in a little more than seven weeks.

One position in particular is starting to pull away from the rest early on in the process, and you can probably guess which one it is. But, without any further ado, here are the 40 mocks that make up our Database for this week, with nearly all of them having been added or updated since last week’s installment.

The following players were added to our Database this week:

• Utah CB Clark Phillips III
• Florida QB Anthony Richardson

The following players dropped out of our Database this week:

• Michigan CB D.J. Turner
• Boston College WR Zay Flowers
• Clemson ED Myles Murphy
• Georga ED Nolan Smith
• Georgia Tech ED Keion White
• Lousiana State ED B.J. Ojulari
• Arkansas LB Drew Sanders

As you can see, the cornerbacks are starting to lap the field as far as selections are concerned. They make up 23 of the 40 selections in this week’s Database, giving them more than all the other positions combined two weeks into our process.

The player that stands on top of the mountain this week is Maryland cornerback Deonte Banks, who picked up seven selections from this week’s mocks, and he’s followed closely by Emmanuel Forbes of Mississippi State, who got six. Georgia’s Kelee Ringo saw his name appear four times this week as well. Those three are the only players in this week’s Database that appeared more than twice.

The other corners appearing this week were:

• Cam Smith, South Carolina (2 selections)
• Joey Porter Jr., Penn State (2 selections)
• Devon Witherspoon, Illinois (1 selection)
• Clark Phillips III, Utah (1 selection)

There was a tie for the next-most popular position for the Vikings this week between the interior defensive line and the wide receivers, with each picking up four selections. The defensive line selections were equally split between Pitt’s Calijah Kancey and Clemson’s Bryan Bresee. For the receivers, Josh Downs of North Carolina garnered two selections, while Jaxon Smith-Njigba of Ohio State and Jordan Addison of Southern Cal wound up with one each.

Three of this week’s selections went to safeties, with Alabama’s Brian Branch holding on to his two selections from last week and Texas A&M’s Antonio Johnson also holding steady with one pick.

Interior offensive linemen wound up being selected twice this week, as Minnesota center John Michael Schmitz was joined by Florida lineman O’Cyrus Torrance with one selection each. Edge defenders also picked up two picks this week, with both of them going to Iowa’s Lukas van Ness.

Henry To’o To’o of Alabama was the only off-ball linebacker to get a selection this week, as his name appeared once. And, yes, we finally had one brave soul projecting the Vikings to take a quarterback (via a trade up, no less), as one mock had them going with Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson. The mock in question has the Vikings trading up to #13 to get Richardson, though after his Combine performance this week I’m guessing it’s going to take a trade to a much higher spot to acquire his services.

Those are the mocks for this week, so let’s bring on the donut graph for this week’s picks. As always, you may click on the graphic for purposes of embiggening.

Next week we’ll be able to pick up the trends graph so we can see stocks rising and falling throughout the process as well as the effects of free agency on what positions the Vikings are projected to select.

That’s your Mock Draft Database for this week, ladies and gentlemen! We’ll be back next week with an update to see if there are any significant changes to the projections for our favorite team.