It\u2019s a long ways until the 2026 NFL Draft, but it\u2019s truly never too early to start looking ahead and predicting which position you think your favorite team will take in the opening round. Thankfully, the great Field Yates at ESPN just dropped a brand new first-round mock and we all know that when Field speaks, we should probably listen in.<\/p>\n
In his mock, Yates has the Vikings selecting at No. 18 where he\u2019s paired with the Northwestern edge rusher Anto Saka, a toolsy 6\u20194, 255-pound pass rusher with little production thus far in his career, but obviously scouts see something special in him if they\u2019re willing to mock him in the first round with just nine sacks in his two collegiate seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaka is one of those players who immediately widens your eyes when you watch his tape,\u201d says Yates. \u201cHis incredible explosiveness puts pass protectors on their heels. Saka\u2019s numbers are just OK through two seasons (nine sacks over 22 games), but he draws a lot of attention from opponents and is still a bit raw as a prospect. The starter kit of desirable traits is there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs edge rush a gigantic need for the Vikings? No. Is there such a thing as too much depth at that position? Also no. Saka could fit in nicely with Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel and Dallas Turner.\u201c<\/p>\n
As Yates stated above, edge is obviously not a huge need for the Vikings who currently have three strong players at the position already leading the group into the 2025 season. Would a fourth one help? Sure, it would allow the starters to play a few less snaps per game and keep them fresh. Is it likely going to be the direction the Vikings go in 2026? Something in my gut tells me no.<\/p>\n
I personally believe linebacker or cornerback will be a much more important position to address in next year\u2019s draft, but that\u2019s the fun of it all, you never truly know what a team is going to do until they do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a long ways until the 2026 NFL Draft, but it\u2019s truly never too early to start looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,26309,1312,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-304086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-vikings","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings-mock-drafts","12":"tag-minnesota-vikings-news","13":"tag-minnesotavikings","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115062933422274468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}