Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Tyler Forness

2024 NFL draft: Vikings mock draft roundup 7.0

Mock draft season is upon us and that means our mock draft roundup is back!

What we do every week is track the mainstream outlets mock drafts and aggregate how many times a player gets selected. Last season, we tallied up 545 mock drafts and that included a whopping 54 different players. With the Minnesota Vikings set to pick 11th overall, there will be a lot of discussions surrounding the quarterbacks in this draft along with trading up.

We will track them and try to determine trends and patterns, along with giving my own analysis on how they could fit with the Vikings.

Mock Draft Roundup 6.0

UCLA EDGE Laiatu Latu

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

Bleacher Report’s Scouting Staff
SB Nation’s JP Acosta
Fantasy Pros’ Andrew Erickson
Fantasy Pros’ Matthew Jones

Minnesota’s front seven could use significant reinforcements. An investment in the draft class’ best pure pass-rusher, UCLA’s Laiatu Latu, would be a good start.

Even if the Vikings bring one or two of their free agents back into the fold, there are caveats. Hunter turns 30 later this year, and Davenport dealt with injuries last season. An infusion of youth should serve the Vikings’ defensive front well.-BR

Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy

USA Today Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

Philadelphia Inquirer’s Devin Jackson
USA Today’s Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz
The 33rd Team’s Connor Livesay
CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso
Vikings Wire’s Saivion Mixson
Yahoo! Sports’ Charles McDonald and Nate Tice
Pro Football Network’s Ian Cummings
Steelers Wire’s Curt Popejoy

This is one of the few spots where slotting J.J. McCarthy makes sense in the first round. At Michigan, McCarthy thrived off play-action passes and moving the pocket, a similar scheme to what Kevin O’Connell runs in Minnesota. With Kirk Cousins’ future in question, the Vikings need to find a backup plan at quarterback.-Jackson

Alabama EDGE Dallas Turner

Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

NFL.com’s Chad Reuter
The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner
Chicago Sun-Times’ Patrick Finley
For The Win’s Christian D’Andrea
Pro Football Network’s Joe Broback
Falcons Wire’s Matt Urben
Fantasy Pros’ Mike Fanelli
Patriots Wire’s Jordy McElroy

Assuming Kirk Cousins re-signs with the Vikings, the team takes Turner to replenish its soon-to-be depleted pass-rush depth. Minnesota makes its move for a quarterback in Round 2, trading fourth-, fifth- and sixth-round picks to Carolina to swap second-round picks and grab Oregon’s Bo Nix as Cousins’ successor.-Reuter

Alabama CB Kool-Aid McKinstry

Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

Pro Football Network’s Tony Catalina
Pro Football Network’s Anthony Miller

His teammate went two picks earlier, but take nothing away from Kool-Aid McKinstry here, as he is a star in his own right. Smooth, productive, and a stellar athlete are all accurate ways to describe the former Crimson Tide cornerback. The Minnesota Vikings add to their secondary with a Bama CB, and it feels like a nice player/team fit.-Catalina

Iowa CB Cooper DeJean

Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

Pro Football Network’s James Fragoza
Pro Football Network’s Oliver Hodgkinson
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy
Buccaneers Wire’s River Wells
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar

As you’d expect from an Iowa DB, he’s a plus-run defender, stellar in zone coverage, and technically refined. Having him on the outside immediately opens up the playbook for DC Brian Flores, who was already in his bag without strong corners this season.-Fragoza

Florida State EDGE Jared Verse

Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

Barstool Sports’ Liam Blutman
Barstool Sports’ Steven Cheah
Fantasy Points’ Brett Whitefield
ESPN’s Field Yates
NFL.com’s Dan Parr
San Diego Union Tribune’s Eddie Brown
Panthers Wire’s Anthony Rizzuti

Danielle Hunter is coming off a 16.5 sack season but he’s also a free agent. Verse can represent a huge cost savings if they decide to retain Kirk Cousins.-Cheah

Alabama CB Terrion Arnold

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

CBS Sports’ Garrett Podell
Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt
CBS Sports’ Kyle Stackpole
Sports Illustrated’s Luke Easterling

Terrion Arnold is the hands-down top defensive back in this class, and he goes to a team in desperate need of a true CB1 to anchor the back end of Brian Flores’ blitz-heavy defense (50.7% blitz rate, highest in the NFL). At 6-0 and weighing 196 pounds, Arnold won consistently in the SEC. The First-Team All-American co-led the conference with five interceptions and lead the entire SEC in targets ending with an incompletion (43). Arnold also didn’t allow a touchdown on 445 coverage snaps last season.-Podell

Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell

Lon Horwedel-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson
The Ringer’s Benjamin Solak

Mitchell is long, fluid and was a pass-breakup machine at Toledo. And that’s exactly who he was at the Senior Bowl — to the point that he’ll be in the CB1 conversation.-Wilson

North Carolina QB Drake Maye

Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler’s Scouting Report

Who:

CBS Sports’ Josh Edwards

Minnesota has perused the rookie quarterback market over the past few years and has not been in a position to pounce. I tend to think New England WILL draft a quarterback, but the possibility that it is not in love with the quarterback prospects available has to be considered. In this instance, the Patriots give the Vikings the heir apparent to Kirk Cousins.-Edwards

Georgia TE Brock Bowers

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Who:

New York Post’s Steve Serby

Coach Kevin O’Connell loves featuring the tight end, and T.J. Hockenson (ACL and MCL surgery) won’t be ready when the 2024 season starts. Why not go “best player available anyway”? Especially if Kirk Cousins is re-signed. -Serby

Overview

Through the seventh week of the 2024 calendar year, we have collected 175 mock drafts with 19 different players having been sent to the Vikings. In the last week, there were 10 players across 42 mock drafts.

Player January 1
EDGE Jared Verse 27
EDGE Dallas Turner 23
EDGE Laiatu Latu 21
DT Jer’Zhan Newton 16
CB Terrion Arnold 14
QB Michael Penix Jr. 13
QB J.J. McCarthy 13
CB Cooper DeJean 11
QB Jayden Daniels 8
CB Kool-Aid McKinstry 8
CB Nate Wiggins 5
QB Bo Nix 4
DT Byron Murphy II 3
EDGE Chop Robinson 2
QB Drake Maye 2
CB Quinyon Mitchell 2
OT Olu Fashanu 1
QB Caleb Williams 1
TE Brock Bowers 1
Total 175

The Real Forno Show

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.