Mock Draft Roundup: Experts Pick Edge Rushers Laiatu Latu and Dallas Turner for the Vikings

I looked at 68 different mock drafts published over two weeks to see what people said about who the Vikings will (or should) pick.

Photo by Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Vikings have the 11th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and it’s difficult to find any consensus on it. The last time the Vikings had the 11th pick, which was surprisingly recent, nearly everybody projected Trae Waynes to the team – a prediction that turned out to be true.

But that level of agreement on a projection that far down the draft is pretty rare. This year’s mock drafts have been a little bit more varied, especially with the quarterback situation for Minnesota up in the air.

With that in mind, I wanted to take a survey of mock drafts. With homage to Christopher Gates at the Daily Norseman, where I got my start blogging about the Vikings, I decided to create a donut chart of those picks.

In my experience, mock drafts in January are typically not accurate, especially outside of the top ten. But, it could be a fun experiment in figuring out what people think of the Vikings.

All in all, 17 different players were projected to the Vikings. In the “other” category missed out above, there are three players selected twice: Brock Bowers, TE Georgia; Cooper DeJean, CB Iowa; Nate Wiggins, CB Clemson.

Of the 68 mock drafts surveyed, only three featured a Vikings trade. Two of them featured a trade up for a quarterback – Jayden Daniels from LSU and Michael Penix Jr. from Washington and one featured a trade down. In their trade down, the Vikings moved down two spots to allow the Las Vegas Raiders to select quarterback J.J. McCarthy from Michigan while they themselves selected Dallas Turner, an edge rusher from Alabama.

The results change slightly when only looking at traditional media outlets, like CBS Sports or NFL.com. In those mock drafts, they select Jared Verse, edge rusher from Florida State, 19.4 percent of the time. They select edge rusher Laiatu Latu from 13.9 percent of the time.

After that, defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton from Illinois and Penix 11.1 percent of the time and Turner 8.3 percent of the time. Traditional media constituted just under 50 percent of the mock drafts.

Independent media made up the difference, giving the Vikings Latu 23.8 percent of the time, Penix 19.0 percent of the time and Turner 14.3 percent of the time. Fantasy sports outlets, who were a minority of the mock drafts, split between Latu and Turner at 27.3 percent, with one selection each for Verse, cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry from Alabama, edge rusher Chop Robinson from Penn State, linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. from Clemson and DeJean.

This is pretty different from the PFF survey of fans who selected for the Vikings in their mock draft simulator. The plurality of them select a quarterback, though it should be noted that this one doesn’t seem to discriminate between those picking at 11 and those picking somewhere else due to trade.

Positionally, the breakdown is pretty clear – about 50 percent of mocks have the Vikings selecting an edge rusher.

I’m a bit surprised – I expected a larger share of cornerbacks than we see here. The Vikings arguably need more help there given how they failed last year, but there’s no reason that an edge rusher is an incorrect pick. If the draft is deeper at cornerback than at edge rusher, then it makes even more sense to pick one early and grab a corner later.

It’s going to be mock draft season soon here so buckle in.