Tyler Forness discusses what he's discovered the trend to be for the Minnesota Vikings headed into the 2025 NFL Draft.
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00:00The NFL Draft is fast approaching and there's some fascinating trends
00:03happening with the Minnesota Vikings.
00:05What are they and what do they mean?
00:07Let's talk about it.
00:11The Minnesota Vikings are a fascinating team to cover,
00:14and it's getting even more fascinating heading into the NFL Draft.
00:18Free agency, they did exactly what they wanted to accomplish.
00:21They fortified the trenches on both sides of the ball.
00:23Will Fries and Ryan Kelly in the interior of the offensive line.
00:25Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen in the interior of the defensive line.
00:29What that ended up doing, along with the signings of Byron Murphy
00:32and Isaiah Rogers, was it fortified the positions of needs so much
00:36that they can kind of go in any direction they want,
00:39which also leads to fascinating trends when it comes to mock drafts.
00:43I'm the foremost expert when it comes to Minnesota Vikings mock drafts.
00:45I have collected 367 mock drafts since the beginning of the calendar year.
00:50Yes, 367 industry mock drafts.
00:53And I have a strict threshold.
00:55You got to know what you're doing in order to be included in this list.
00:59And one of the reasons I do that is I want to see how things change.
01:01I want to see how things grow, adapt, evolve over the course of time.
01:06And of those 367 selections, we have 11 offensive linemen,
01:11nine cornerbacks, eight defensive tackles, five running backs,
01:14five edge rushers, three safeties, one linebacker, one wide receiver.
01:18That one wide receiver is Travis Hunter,
01:21who was projected to go to the Vikings in January
01:24in one of the early mock drafts.
01:26It was a little weird to see him down that far,
01:28but we know how Deion Sanders Colorado program is viewed nationwide.
01:32It's not consistent.
01:33Some people really don't like the program.
01:36And therefore, the players kind of get the brunt of that.
01:40And that's why you have one wide receiver.
01:42But what's really interesting over the course of the last couple of weeks
01:47is how things have grown and evolved.
01:50Since free agency started, so just in the last two weeks,
01:54we have seen 20 different players selected.
01:57But what's really interesting is of the those total 367,
02:01300 of them were on defense, which understandable.
02:04Hundred twenty three, a cornerback.
02:06Seventy five of them at safety. Well.
02:10Just in the 76 of the last two weeks,
02:1537 of them, 37.
02:20We're at safety.
02:21The NFL draft community and analysts alike are really shifting
02:24towards the Minnesota Vikings, taking a safety.
02:27However, it's really interesting that they're being projected to do that
02:32because Kweisi Opometz has been on record saying, hey,
02:34I probably shouldn't have taken a safety that high.
02:37It didn't work out. Now look where we are.
02:40Is Lewis seen going to prevent them from taking Malachi Starks,
02:43who's been selected 36 times, 18 in the last two weeks,
02:47or Nicky Aminwori from South Carolina, who's been selected 37 times,
02:51also 18 of which in the last two weeks.
02:54Xavier Watts from Notre Dame was also selected once,
02:55but he's probably not going in round one.
02:57He's probably a mid round two, early round three kind of player.
03:01Will Kweisi Opometz do that?
03:03Will he want to take a safety?
03:05I think he's going to do what Brian Flores wants and how Flores is like to play.
03:09Three safety looks.
03:10Plus, those guys can play nickel.
03:13And that means that you can really focus on your outside cornerbacks
03:15and you can have that kind of versatility, which he loves to have that versatility.
03:20So it'll be interesting to see how it parses out.
03:22But it's clear that the shift is going towards safety,
03:27not cornerback, but safety.
03:29Is that the right trend?
03:31We're going to find out more how that trend is going to continue,
03:34because right now we have two weeks of data
03:35on that shift post beginning of free agency.
03:38Jade Baron had six elections and Siobhan Revel Jr. had five.
03:42So cornerback is still a priority for these mock drafters.
03:46Will it be a priority for the Vikings?
03:48Time will tell.
03:49But there's some really intriguing prospects,
03:51and we're going to dive into that throughout the rest of draft
03:55season here on this channel.
03:56And you're going to want to hit that subscribe button.
03:59I'm Tyler Furnas with AZ Sports.
04:01It's called Vikings.