2026 draft stuff

[Vanimal46]

Hard to ignore Sadiq 

[Vanimal46]

Also, I need to remind myself he's on the small side like Irv Smith Jr was... I've been fooled by this type of profile before at TE.

Edit: Just for fun, I searched for Irv Smith Jr on this gold Twitter account:

 

[nicksaviking]

He’s very interesting, but I just don’t think a TE can meet his full potential in this offense. 

[Vanimal46]

Introducing, the next QB the media will hype up as a 1st round QB to pass the time before draft day.

[Danchat]

The testing has been crazy at every position, tons of guys are routinely landing in the top 1% of athleticism and now 4.4 speed seems like it's average. It's hard to say xyz player has flown up the draft board because so many had good combines that they can't all rise.

9 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Introducing, the next QB the media will hype up as a 1st round QB to pass the time before draft day.

He's not even the second most notable QB today, I was watching the drills and some Day 3/UDFA QBs in Taylen Green and Haynes King ran 4.37 and 4.47 40s. Oh, and Green is 6'6" and set the record for vertical leap for a QB. That's like multiple Taysom Hills in one draft class.

[Mike Sixel]

If they are really moving on from McCarthy, as some reports indicate, they need to trade down and get more assets for next year's draft. 

[nicksaviking]

On 2/28/2026 at 9:02 PM, Vanimal46 said:

Introducing, the next QB the media will hype up as a 1st round QB to pass the time before draft day.

 

On 2/28/2026 at 9:13 PM, Danchat said:

The testing has been crazy at every position, tons of guys are routinely landing in the top 1% of athleticism and now 4.4 speed seems like it's average. It's hard to say xyz player has flown up the draft board because so many had good combines that they can't all rise.

He's not even the second most notable QB today, I was watching the drills and some Day 3/UDFA QBs in Taylen Green and Haynes King ran 4.37 and 4.47 40s. Oh, and Green is 6'6" and set the record for vertical leap for a QB. That's like multiple Taysom Hills in one draft class.

Outside of agents, I don't think the QB hype machine is going to find suckers this year. At this point I'm guessing Ty Simpson doesn't even go in the 1st. There's no Sheduer Sanders for people to have widely differing opinions on either. After Mendoza at 1, I think QB stuff will end up being background chatter. 

Which is great as far as I'm concerned. Otherwise they cause the most manufactured shock and indignation for the network wonks to tie themselves in knots over trying to get views and clicks. Frankly, I'm tired of the NFL trying to turn the draft into a soap opera. 

[Vanimal46]

I’ve seen enough. He needs to be drafted by us 

[Vanimal46]

If true, this could push Downs to 18 where we pick... If true, big yikes. 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

If true, this could push Downs to 18 where we pick... If true, big yikes. 

I'm calling dirty pool on this one. I've never heard of a 'degenerative ACL' so I Googled it. It's rare, almost exclusively found in older adults and is actually called Mucoid Degeneration. It appears the treatment is minor arthroscopic surgery to trim some growth from the ligament. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10787846/

I'd guess some team that wants him is trying to scare others away by tanking his stock (and earnings). My Google search may not be definitive, but that one team is trying to scare others away there is zero doubt. Only NFL teams would have this information so one of them leaked it on purpose. I hope that awful team isn't the Vikings. And I hope Jerry Jones gets all his draft picks taken away when we find out it's him.

[Vanimal46]

5 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm calling dirty pool on this one. I've never heard of a 'degenerative ACL' so I Googled it. It's rare, almost exclusively found in older adults and is actually called Mucoid Degeneration. It appears the treatment is minor arthroscopic surgery to trim some growth from the ligament. 

Can't say I have either and you've looked into it more than I have. Kudos to that person who leaked it because degenerative (insert muscle/ligament here) issue sounds pretty bad. I remember LB Myles Jack who had some degenerative knee issue discovered in the draft process and dropped from a top 10 pick in the draft to the 2nd round and out of the league in 5-6 years. 

[Vanimal46]

I'm certainly not concerned about a partially torn meniscus for Downs. I had the same injury diagnosis last winter... March 2025 slipping on ice on an uphill slope, Fully healed in 2-3 weeks with no surgery required. 

[Vanimal46]

Every time I look at this RAS report I become more fascinated and confused at the same time. Was this a real NFL hopeful? Or someone trolling? 11 bench reps at 311 lbs. 6.00 40 yard dash. Did he trip and take 3 seconds to get up for his shuttle time? That's incredible. 

[Mike Sixel]

I am once again being lectured on another site than NFL teams don't draft to fill holes in round one or two.... They just take BPA....

[Vanimal46]

49 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I am once again being lectured on another site than NFL teams don't draft to fill holes in round one or two.... They just take BPA....

In modern day NFL, BPA coincidentally turns out to be the position that team needs most... As @Danchatpoints out in the depth chart, the Vikings could go any direction and it would make sense. 4 years in a row of bad drafting and all that...

I could see DT being addressed in R1 or R2 for our Vikings. Center in the mid rounds for sure. 

[Danchat]

Just wanted to share some of my draft resources with you guys:

* My draft board - every year I do live predictions as the picks come in for Round 1, join me on the Google sheets page on draft day.

* My Draft Simulator - my very own draft simulator coded from scratch!

* Underdog has a new website for creating mock drafts and draft boards that are really slick (and involves no gambling/contests). I recommend you check that out.

* Pro Football Network has a special draft simulator that lets you do live drafts with other random people online. Try giving it a shot!

And here's my latest mock draft:

[Mike Sixel]

Huge trade changes the draft some? I don't know, I don't think it changes anything for the Vikings. Giants aren't picking a player that would have fallen...

[TheLeviathan]

[TheLeviathan]

There's one I did for the week of the draft.   I really hope this team trades back.

[nicksaviking]

I really dislike this draft class, I count 16 players I like. They can trade back, but if they do, I'm almost certain to yawn at the pick.

The only guys I seem drawn to as late 1st or 2nd round picks are the linebackers. Hill, Allen and Rodriguez. And Funny, the robot gave Hill the lowest grade on Levi's mock. And Hill is supposed to be a good blitzer and good in coverage, he's the one of those three I like the best and best fit for Flores.

[Parfigliano]

On 3/25/2026 at 7:43 PM, Mike Sixel said:

I am once again being lectured on another site than NFL teams don't draft to fill holes in round one or two.... They just take BPA....

Have you never heard of the NYJ?

[nicksaviking]

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-garrett-nussmeier-had-cyst-on-spine-during-2025-season

So Garrett Nussmeier has a cyst on his spine that was impacting him last season? Sounds like it's not serious and can easily be rectified.

But to me this feels like draft propaganda to raise his draft stock. The guy played at LSU, not some DIII school. If he was feeling "stabbing pain" while throwing the ball, LSU would have had the resources to diagnose this themselves.

Unless someone buys the story and drafts him early, I'm predicting he goes to Kyle Shanahan in the 5th round. Non-improvisational pocket passer who runs the plays only as called. He's the SF type.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

I really dislike this draft class, I count 16 players I like. They can trade back, but if they do, I'm almost certain to yawn at the pick.

The only guys I seem drawn to as late 1st or 2nd round picks are the linebackers. Hill, Allen and Rodriguez. And Funny, the robot gave Hill the lowest grade on Levi's mock. And Hill is supposed to be a good blitzer and good in coverage, he's the one of those three I like the best and best fit for Flores.

I'm hoping to get early picks in next year's draft for trading back..... But there are certainly more than 16 very good starters in this draft....

[nicksaviking]

5 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm hoping to get early picks in next year's draft for trading back..... But there are certainly more than 16 very good starters in this draft....

I'm sure there are, and the round you were drafted in and whether you're a starter, probably start to lose correlation around year two in the league.

But to me it feels like there are a lot of guys that will be going in the 1st round this year that wouldn't have been going in the 1st round other years. I don't remember a year where there were this few DL and Edge players I was interested in early. Same with WR. And obviously QB. 

[Mike Sixel]

59 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm sure there are, and the round you were drafted in and whether you're a starter, probably start to lose correlation around year two in the league.

But to me it feels like there are a lot of guys that will be going in the 1st round this year that wouldn't have been going in the 1st round other years. I don't remember a year where there were this few DL and Edge players I was interested in early. Same with WR. And obviously QB. 

This QB class is awful. 

[TheLeviathan]

3 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-garrett-nussmeier-had-cyst-on-spine-during-2025-season

So Garrett Nussmeier has a cyst on his spine that was impacting him last season? Sounds like it's not serious and can easily be rectified.

But to me this feels like draft propaganda to raise his draft stock. The guy played at LSU, not some DIII school. If he was feeling "stabbing pain" while throwing the ball, LSU would have had the resources to diagnose this themselves.

Unless someone buys the story and drafts him early, I'm predicting he goes to Kyle Shanahan in the 5th round. Non-improvisational pocket passer who runs the plays only as called. He's the SF type.

Lost in all the "this class is bad, but next year will be awesome!" is Nuss was thought of as a top guy at this time.

A lot can happen in a year.

[TheLeviathan]

5 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I really dislike this draft class, I count 16 players I like. They can trade back, but if they do, I'm almost certain to yawn at the pick.

The only guys I seem drawn to as late 1st or 2nd round picks are the linebackers. Hill, Allen and Rodriguez. And Funny, the robot gave Hill the lowest grade on Levi's mock. And Hill is supposed to be a good blitzer and good in coverage, he's the one of those three I like the best and best fit for Flores.

There are a lot of solid guys I like.  I think having picks inside the top 100 is a benefit so if they deal back I feel pretty good about bringing in some good players late 1/into the 2nd.

But this class is also so devoid of top end talent that **** could go sideways fast.

[nicksaviking]

21 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Lost in all the "this class is bad, but next year will be awesome!" is Nuss was thought of as a top guy at this time.

A lot can happen in a year.

For sure, and looking back, I do see some prognosticators had high hopes for Nussmeier, but I still think it was due to a lack of a clear QB1 in the class. Some guys had to be there by default and he looked like one of the top options. 

[TheLeviathan]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

For sure, and looking back, I do see some prognosticators had high hopes for Nussmeier, but I still think it was due to a lack of a clear QB1 in the class. Some guys had to be there by default and he looked like one of the top options. 

I think people saw a few guys- Klubnik being another and Allar - as legit, clear QB1 types.  You can go back and look at early mocks from a year ago and they talk glowingly of guys that are now in the 4/5th round range.

[DocBauer]

I'm really torn concerning the philosophy of taking BPA for rounds 1-3 and then look for best value/need. Reports are the heart of the draft is rounds 2-4, maybe round 5, for quality that offer depth and upside, but light for difference makers in round 1.

The Vikings have needs across the board, but aren't exactly desperate anywhere in particular. BUT, there is need for young talent at almost every position. IF the DEPTH of middle round talent is true, I'd really love to see them move back a couple spots in round 1 and 2 to get another 3rd and a 4th and add draft capital. 

Safety is a need, even if Harry comes back. But quality safeties usually slide a bit most years. They just don't hold the same value as CB. And I kinda like 3-4 S options that might be available with a slide back in the 1st round to pick up a 3rd round pick for someone looking for need. 

I'd also be looking for someone in round 2 looking to trade up a few spots for a 4th coming back to the Vikings.

I'm NOT looking to trade down just for the sake of doing so. I just think there is a "hot spot" from later in the 1st round through the 4th where the team can still grab one of the top 4 SAFETIES, a solid 0-1 DT with some upside, a quality RB, one of the top CENTERS, a SOLID WR, and a projectile CB who only has to be CB #4 for 2026. 

Instead of having 4 picks in the top 100, we end up with 5 picks in the top 100, and a 6th in the top 125-ish.

The 5th, 6th, and 3 th 7th rounders should be BEST LB, EDGE, OT, OG, TE available for for depth and projection. 

We can only trade down twice in the 1st two rounds if someone is looking for need. But we have the luxury of a team that doesn't have a SINGULAR need at any ONE spot. So that luxury is an advantage unless there is someone that our FO has targeted in particular. 

And who knows? The Vikes might just SIT where they are in every round and just take BPA and that still might be a great draft. I guess it's just my dream they'd trade down twice, and get 2 more early picks that could make a difference.