If the Minnesota Vikings opt to use both of their draft picks in trading up, it appears they’ll take a linebacker and a wide receiver with the No. 23 and No. 25 picks in Thursday night’s NFL Draft
Vikings draft rumors: Minnesota targeting linebacker, wide receiver
The Vikings have a lot of possibilities with their two first round picks, including trades, but if they hold on to their selections, its likely they take a wide receiver and a linebacker.
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The Vikings have been one of the teams most frequently mentioned as a possible mover on draft day. As one of the teams with two picks, they have the ammo to make a move up, as Dan Kadar noted in his rundown of NFL Draft storylines. That’s led to speculation, and a lot of it.
But if they don’t make a move? ESPN’s John Holtzman says its an inside linebacker and a wide receiver. For the crew at The Daily Norseman, who have been covering the Vikings draft faithfully, this is no surprise: their database of who various mock draft makers projected the Vikings to select showed that a linebacker -- notably Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o -- and a wide receiver were the two positions most frequently taken when Minnesota came up. Tennessee’s Cordarrelle Patterson and Justin Hunter as well as Cal’s Keenan Allen were each picked at least 10 times. It makes sense: as Matthew Fairburn pointed out in his summary of the Vikings’ draft needs, wide receiver is an important spot to fill with Percy Harvin gone, and the team needs a linebacker for their Cover 2 scheme.
Te’o might not be as easy to come by as some might have thought -- the Bears are reportedly high on him at No. 20, and the Vikings might need to move up to take him.
Mocking the Draft’s final two ganders at the first round followed that pattern: Kadar had the Vikes picking Te’o followed by DeAndre Hopkins, Fairburn had them taking defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, then Hopkins.
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