We are officially doing well in what children can call “Mock Draft Szn” with the start of the new league year approaching. While most simulation projects go on for a round or two, a writer for The Draft Network designed a total of seven rounds of selections for the Minnesota Vikings. What does that have? Well, I think it’s a pretty accurate reflection of what we’ll see this April, as it’s heavy on the defensive side of the ball.
Ryan Fowler’s seven-round mock of the Vikings has purple using his first choice to tackle the attack with the selection of USC guard Alijah Vera-Tucker. After that, however, most try to increase the Vikings’ defense, as eight of their other eleven teams go to the defensive side of football.
When looking at Fowler’s draft, the choice that intrigues me the most comes down far in the fourth round with Stanford’s Walker Little selection. Going into the 2019 season, Little was a guy who was being quoted as a potential selection in the first round, but suffered a significant knee injury in the first quarter of the Stanford season opening that made him miss the rest of the season. Little then opted out of the 2020 season due to concerns about COVID-19, which means that it will have been about two years since his last game action by the time the 2021 NFL season begins.
I’m not entirely sure that Little would make it to the fourth round of the draft, but if he did, he would be the kind of guy the Vikings could try to turn into a new blind side protector for Kirk Cousins (or, you know, who wants you to be the quarterback here in the near future). There are some other interesting choices in Fowler’s simulation as well, but Little’s selection was the one that really caught my eye. It is one of those teams that could end up being quite spectacular if it worked as well as it could.
What do you think of Ryan Fowler’s simulation of seven rounds for the Vikings, folks?