2013 NFL mock draft: Johnathan Hankins to Minnesota Vikings

His surname isn’t Williams, but the idea is the same: re-build a stout run defense.

Apr 2, 2013, 1:00 PM UTC

Jamie Sabau

For years, the Minnesota Vikings had one of the league's best defensive tackle pairings in the "Williams Wall" - with Pat and Kevin Williams spearheading what was consistently one of the NFL's best run defenses. Pat has been out of the league for two years, and Kevin will be 33 in August and, while still a dependable starter, is clearly no spring chicken. As such, it's probably time for Minnesota to try to find the next iteration of the Williams Wall; whether or not the surname oddity can be replicated remains to be seen.

Team

Player

Position

Height

Weight

Class

25. Minnesota Vikings

Johnathan Hankins, Ohio State

6'3"

320

Christopher Gates: "Unlike our previous selection, where the best available player strategy trumped making a selection for need, those two things intersect nicely with this pick, as the Vikings fill a need at defensive tackle with the highly talented Hankins.

"Hankins anchored an Ohio State defense that helped get the Buckeyes to a 12-0 record in 2012. He's pretty versatile, having lined up as a one-technique, three-technique, and five-technique defensive lineman for the Buckeyes this past season, and showed the ability to make plays from all of those spots. In the Vikings' defense, he would almost certainly be the starter in 2013 at the nose tackle spot, next to ten-year veteran Kevin Williams.

"One of the major knocks on Hankins has been his conditioning, as it usually is with players that are as big as he is. An NFL-level conditioning program would likely help Hankins out with that. With the way the Vikings rotate their defensive linemen, there's a good chance that he would be a two-down player starting out, coming out on passing downs like Pat Williams did in his heyday with the Vikings. He's a good run-stopper, but his pass rush skills haven't quite caught up to his run-stuffing ability at this point.

"People are probably quite surprised that the Vikings didn't go with a wide receiver with either of their first-round picks in this scenario. The wide receiver class is deep enough that the Vikings can probably get an immediate contributor with their pick in the second, or even third, round of this year's draft."

Here’s our own Dan Kadar to break down the pick:

Doubling up on defensive line in the first round would certainly bolster the Vikings’ defensive line. But is it a wise move to ignore other areas of need with two first-round picks? While there will be wide receivers in later rounds, none will be as good as someone like Keenan Allen of California or DeAndre Hopkins of Clemson. They both profile as true No. 1 wide receivers while the wide receivers in later rounds are not. Hankins is a good fit, however. He can play either defensive tackle spot. If the Vikings would ever want to go to a three-man front, he could line up at end as well.

More: Johnathan Hankins scouting report

Coming up at Noon ET: the Green Bay Packers, repped by Acme Packing Company, make the No. 26 overall pick.

Top 5 players remaining

#	Player	Pos.	College	Ht.	Wt.
19	Tyler Eifert	TE	Notre Dame	6'6"	250
20	D.J. Fluker *	OT	Alabama	6'5"	339
21	DeAndre Hopkins *	WR	Clemson	6'1"	214
22	Damontre Moore	OLB	Texas A&M	6'5"	250
23	Cornelius Carradine	DE	Florida State	6'4"	276

2013 SB Nation NFL writers’ mock draft results

No.	Team	Player	Pos.	College
1	Kansas City Chiefs	Luke Joeckel	OT	Texas A&M
2	Jacksonville Jaguars	Geno Smith	QB	West Virginia
3	Oakland Raiders	Sharrif Floyd	DT	Florida
4	Philadelphia Eagles	Eric Fisher	OT	Central Michigan
5	Detroit Lions	Ezekiel Ansah	DE	BYU
6	Cleveland Browns	Dion Jordan	OLB	Oregon
7	Arizona Cardinals	Barkevious Mingo	OLB	LSU
8	Buffalo Bills	Jarvis Jones	OLB	Georgia
9	New York Jets	Chance Warmack	OG	Alabama
10	Tennessee Titans	Dee Milliner	CB	Alabama
11	San Diego Chargers	Star Lotulelei	DT	Utah
12	Miami Dolphins	Desmond Trufant	CB	Washington
13	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Xavier Rhodes	CB	Florida State
14	Carolina Panthers	Lane Johnson	OT	Oklahoma
15	New Orleans Saints	Alec Ogletree	LB	Georgia
16	St. Louis Rams	Tavon Austin	WR	West Virginia
17	Pittsburgh Steelers	Cordarrelle Patterson	WR	Tennessee
18	Dallas Cowboys	Jonathan Cooper	OG	North Carolina
19	New York Giants	Sheldon Richardson	DT	Missouri
20	Chicago Bears	Arthur Brown	LB	Kansas State
21	Cincinnati Bengals	Kenny Vaccaro	S	Texas
22	St. Louis Rams	Jonathan Cyprien	S	Florida International
23	Minnesota Vikings	Bjoern Werner	DE	Florida State
24	Indianapolis Colts	Datone Jones	DE	UCLA
25	Minnesota Vikings	Johnathan Hankins	DT	Ohio State