Vikings

Post-Free Agency Mock Drafts Settle on Vikings Picking Guard

Who the Vikings are going to select in the 2018 NFL Draft changes weekly, it seems. That’s not always the case — most mock drafts in 2015 had the Vikings picking Trae Waynes throughout the offseason, and those mocks were largely proven correct.

This year, in part because of how difficult it is to project which players will be available at the 30th pick, the specific player picked keeps changing. Since January, that player has usually been an offensive tackle — someone like Kolton Miller from UCLA or Mike McGlinchey from Notre Dame.

After the conclusion of the first wave of free agency, however, major media mock drafts have decided to award the Vikings a natural guard more often than anything else, with a specific focus on Will Hernandez from Texas-El Paso.

Once again, I’ve gathered major media mock drafts to see how the winds are blowing for the Vikings — but this time we’re only looking at mock drafts published after March 17, when the Vikings signed Sheldon Richardson.

Last time, a quarter of the mock drafts decided to gift the Vikings a defensive tackle. This time, even though Richardson is only on a one-year deal, they’ve steered clear of that choice. The notable exception is Danny Kelly from the Ringer, who decided that the length of Richardson’s contract and the value of pass-rushing depth dictated a Taven Bryan selection.

The Vikings already signed Sheldon Richardson to a one-year deal in free agency, but as we saw last year with the Eagles, there’s no such thing as having too many pass rushers. Bryan’s raw, but he’s an explosive athlete who could be special as a slicing interior penetrator.

For the first time, over half of the mock drafts selected a guard for the Vikings. An additional mock draft — Eric Edholm’s of Pro Football Weeklyselected Connor Williams, and argued that he could play guard or tackle for the Vikings depending on their preference.

The most popular player by a good margin was Will Hernandez, who was selected six of 25 times. In one mock draft, the Vikings trade up to pick 18 in order to get him. After him was Isaiah Wynn from Georgia, selected three of 25 times. Along with Wynn is another guard, Billy Price from Ohio State — also selected three times.

In the beginning of January, Wynn did not often appear in the first round of a number of mock drafts, or was selected low by the Vikings. This time around, Wynn has been consistently going too high for the Vikings to select him — each time converting to guard from his college position of left tackle.

Now, when mock drafts pick players like Kolton Miller (picked once), James Daniels (picked twice) or Mike McGlinchey (picked twice), Isaiah Wynn has often gone a few picks earlier to a team like the Carolina Panthers or Seattle Seahawks.

Overall, guards were selected in 56 percent of mock drafts. Tackles were selected in 16 percent of mocks, cornerbacks were selected 12 percent of the time (Central Florida’s Mike Hughes was relatively popular), defensive tackles twice (Bryan once, Maurice Hurst the other time) and one pick each for a linebacker (Leighton Vander Esch) and tight end (Mike Gesicki).

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