Vikings Defensive Line

It’s on to the defense. The defensive line is next in this pre-draft run through the position groups of the Minnesota Vikings. 

Minnesota Vikings Defensive Line

Jalen Redmond

Levi Drake Rodriguez

Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins

Taki Taimani

Elijah Williams

Jaylon Hutchings

A year ago, the Vikings defensive line was topped by somewhat big free agent additions in Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. Seeing as both have moved to different teams, it’s safe to say that things didn’t work as hoped. Instead of impact plays consistently coming from Allen and Hargrave, Jalen Redmond emerged as one of the better interior defensive linemen in the league. He now tops this plucky group. All six of the above defensive linemen were either late-round picks or undrafted.

Jalen Redmond - undrafted

Levi Drake Rodriguez - seventh-round

Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins - fifth-round

Taki Taimani - undrafted

Elijah Williams - undrafted

Jaylon Hutchings - undrafted

This unheralded and mostly undrafted group of football players have become one of my favorite position groups on the Vikings. Playing in the shadow of Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave last season, Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins emerged, especially Redmond. People outside of Minnesota might look at the group and exclaim “Who the hell are they?” I kinda like that in a “chip on the shoulder” sort of way. Now, that doesn’t mean that this unheralded group is headed to Canton. Far from it. It definitely looks like the Vikings have found a gem in Redmond. His is an unusual case. If not for a battle with blood clots in college, he might’ve been an early-round pick rather than being ignored in the 2023 NFL Draft. After being released by the Carolina Panthers, he kept his football dream alive playing a few games with the Arlington Renegades of the XFL. That’s where the Vikings found him in 2024. He played a bit that year and earned a starting role last summer. Rodriguez could be the next defensive lineman to step from his unheralded beginnings. He earned a rotational role as a rookie in 2024. That role increased last season. It remains to be seen if he can handle a starting role. Perhaps his ceiling is as a rotational player. His dedication and work ethic seems to make anything possible. Whatever his role, I love his energy and I love having him on the team. Ingram-Dawkins might be the biggest wildcard of the group. It was generally thought that he would’ve been better off staying at Georgia another season rather than entering the 2025 NFL Draft. If he’d stayed in college, he might’ve been an early-round pick this year. Who knows? What is known is that the Vikings might’ve gotten a steal in the fifth round. Now, it’s on Ingram-Dawkins to play to his potential. Elijah Williams might be another 2025 steal. There’s a too long history of players from HBCUs being under-valued and often ignored completely. Williams should’ve been drafted. He didn’t play a lot last season but he did show that he belonged. Taki Taimani is the only defensive lineman on the roster with nose tackle size. He’s bounced between the practice squad and active roster in his two years with the team. The Vikings signed Jaylon Hutchings in January. He was undrafted in 2024, signed by the Chicago Bears, released by the Bears, and signed by the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. His path to Minnesota resembles that of Redmond. He’s yet to take a regular season NFL snap but it’s easy to dream of Hutchings turning into another defensive lineman gem.

Despite my fondness for this plucky group of football players, it’s easy to see the Vikings spending an early-round draft pick on the position. My biggest defensive line question is whether Brian Flores wants a big, space-eating, block-taking nose tackle-type of player in his defense. I think of his Vince Wilfork days with the New England Patriots and believe that he might. This draft has a few of those players. 

Next up: Linebackers 

Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft Monday on Tuesday

With the double-whammy passings of Minnesota Vikings legends Jeff Siemon and Joey Browner, it was a rough, sad weekend. I wasn’t ready to dabble with a mock draft on Monday. The draft is inevitable and Monday’s Minnesota Vikings Mock Draft falls on Tuesday. 

1. Makai Lemon, WR, USC

2. Chris Johnson, CB, San Diego State

3. Kyle Louis, LB, Pittsburgh

3. Jonah Coleman, RB, Washington

5. DeMonte Capehart, DL, Clemson

6. Tanner Koziol, TE, Houston

7. Parker Brailsford, C, Alabama

7. Kaden Wetjen, WR, Iowa

7. Max Bredeson, TE/FB, Michigan

This draft started different than most with USC receiver Makai Lemon dropping to the Vikings at #18. I’ve often resisted the receiver temptation when Jordan Tyson’s been available but I couldn’t resist when Lemon dropped. It feels weird to select a position other than safety, corner, defensive line. A Vikings receiving trio of Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and Makai Lemon would be a beautiful thing. 

The surprises continued with the Vikings next two picks. Chris Johnson had been a second-round regular in early mock draft exercises. He hasn’t been recently as he seems to have risen closer to a first round pick rather than a mid-second round pick. He’s an easy pick here. I believe that Johnson would be an immediate contributor at outside corner for the Vikings. 

Simply put, Kyle Louis is one of my favorite players in the draft. I feel that Brian Flores would love working with this skilled and versatile defender. I know that I would love seeing Louis play in Flores’ defense. I’d be stunned and thrilled if Louis is still available in the third round.

I’m convinced that the Vikings will draft a running back on Day 2 of the draft. I like all of the running backs that should be available and Jonah Coleman is one of my favorites. 

The Vikings need to supplement the defensive front. DeMonte Capehart in the fifth feels like a steal. All of the Vikings picks in this mock feel like steals. Capehart would be a nice addition to the defensive line rotation. 

The Vikings don’t need a tight end this year. They will need one next year as T.J. Hockenson’s re-worked contract currently has him walking next offseason. Tanner Kozoil would be a nice contributor as a rookie and starter in 2027. 

I like just about everything about this mock draft. I don’t like that center isn’t addressed until the seventh round. I believe that finding an immediate starting center in this draft is one of the Vikings biggest needs. However, having Blake Brandel as a place-holder at center takes off some of the pressure of finding one. Perhaps that’s a reason I passed on Connor Lew, Jake Slaughter, and Logan Jones earlier. At least Parker Brailsford was found in the seventh round of this mock. At 6’2” and 290lbs, he’s even smaller than Garrett Bradbury. That thought likely sends chills down the spine of Vikings fans everywhere. While Brailsford might be a decent center project, I doubt that he bumps Brandel from the starting lineup and into a versatile reserve role this season. 

It’s easy to have favorites at the top of the draft. You do enough of these mocks and favorites are found at the bottom of the draft. Kaden Wetjen and Max Bredeson have become two of my favorites. I thought that Myles Price did a nice job as the Vikings kick and punt returner as a rookie last season. Wetjen could take the return game to a whole other level. Bredeson would immediately be penciled in as the heir to C.J. Ham’s fullback/extra blocker role. 

Until the next one. 

RIP Joey Browner

Well, this can stop. While mourning Saturday’s loss of Jeff Siemon came Sunday’s news that Joey Browner had passed the same day. It’s been a rough weekend. Siemon was only 75. Browner was only 65. I wish the naive thoughts of my youth held true and all my Vikings heroes would play and live forever. 

I don’t even know what to think about the loss of Joey Browner following the loss of Jeff Siemon. How do you process the second when you haven’t fully processed the first? 

Following the “glory years” of the 1970s, the 1980s were a different sort of time for the Minnesota Vikings. For one thing, they moved from the outdoor wildness of Metropolitan Stadium into the indoor predictably of the Metrodome. For another, wins come as easily. Bud Grant retired after the 1983 season, came back after the disastrous 1984 season, and retired again after the 1985 season. The 1980s were a very different decade after the great success of the 1970s. Seeing as the Vikings won none of the three Super Bowls they played in during the 1970s, any success of that decade is relative. A consistent highlight for the Vikings through the 1980s was the strong play of safety Joey Browner. The 1983 NFL Draft was and will always be best known for the quarterbacks selected in the first round. John Elway, Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O’Brien, and Dan Marino. All of the six were good. Three of them were great. Elway, Kelly, and Marino have busts in Canton. It was a loaded first round with running back Eric Dickerson, tackle Jimbo Covert, and corner Darrell Green joining the three quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Vikings selected Joey Browner with the 19th pick in the 1983 NFL Draft. It was one of the best picks in franchise history. This was one of the league’s historic first rounds and Browner was a big part of that history. He was a great football player. If not for the injuries that shortened his career, he’d have a bust in Canton. He still played 10 years and was one of the best safeties in the league for about eight of them. For a few of those years, he was the best. Safety peer Kenny Easley played fewer years and was great for fewer years and he just got past the erratic Hall of Fame voters. Browner deserves the same. He probably tops my list of Vikings players that have long waited for and deserves to get that Hall call. For what it’s worth, he has received induction into the Pro Football Researchers Association’s Hall of Very Good. That’s been a stepping stone to Canton for many deserving players. 

Since the 1970s, it seems that each decade has brought a singular player that’s become a near universal favorite of Vikings fans. In the 1990s, that player was John Randle. In the 2000s, that player was Randy Moss. For some, that player may have been Antoine Winfield. For the 2010s, that player was, and still is, Harrison Smith. The 2020s are still going but it’s hard to imagine any player topping Justin Jefferson. In the 1980s, that player was Joey Browner. From the safety position, he was a one-man wrecking crew. I will always remember the playoff game against Los Angeles in which he simply took apart the Rams offense. After the game, Rams head coach John Robinson (Browner’s head coach at USC) said that his former player was the best defensive player in the league. He wasn’t wrong. Joey Browner was a great football player. Somehow, he was a great football player that’s ridiculously underrated. 

Losing people is perhaps the most painful price for seeing more years. I’ve been a fan of the Minnesota Vikings for over 50 years. Every player that’s played and every coach that’s coached for the team means something to me. Losing Jeff Siemon and Joey Browner in one day is a rough one. 

RIP Joey Browner

RIP Jeff Siemon

As a young fan of the Minnesota Vikings in the 1970s, I naively believed that all of my heroes would play forever. My earliest football memories were the Vikings annually competing for and in the Super Bowl. From 1973-76, they played in three of the four Super Bowls. If not for a dreadful push-off, it would’ve been four of four. It felt like the Vikings were always going to be playing for NFL titles. Unfortunately, this little kid had it all wrong. Players don’t play forever and the Vikings haven’t been back to a Super Bowl since their loss to the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XI. Players also don’t live forever. As had become a recurring theme in Super Bowls, not a lot went right for the Vikings in that game against the Raiders. One of the few bright spots that day was the play of linebacker Jeff Siemon. It felt like he made every tackle. For a great player with a lot of great games, it might’ve been his best game. Yesterday, Jeff Siemon passed at the age of 75.

Other than his going to Stanford, I liked everything about Jeff Siemon. In a strange Cal-Stanford connection for the Vikings, Siemon was selected with the first round pick acquired from the New England Patriots for quarterback Joe Kapp. Siemon is the best Stanford player to ever play for the Vikings. If not the best, Joe Kapp is the most significant Cal player to ever play for the Vikings. Anyway, Siemon’s play on the field easily erased any stupid Stanford issues that I might’ve had. The Vikings annually fielded outstanding defenses in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Those defenses were known for and fronted by one of the greatest defensive lines in NFL history. Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, and Gary Larsen/Doug Sutherland cast a long shadow over the defenders that played behind them. In Roy Winston, Lonnie Warwick, and Wally Hilgenberg, the Vikings had good, solid linebackers. They cleaned up nicely what that menacing front line left behind. Jeff Siemon is arguably the first great Vikings linebacker. He was the first that was able to emerge from the shadow cast by Page, Eller, and Marshall as an outstanding football player like them rather than because of them. Bud Grant never really trusted rookies to start right away. Alan Page was the first that truly challenged that lack of trust. Siemon was the second. He replaced Warwick in the lineup six games into his rookie season. My first Vikings linebacker trio was Roy Winston-Jeff Siemon-Wally Hilgenberg and I loved them. Despite being the youngest by several years, Siemon was easily the standout. That trio was together from 1972 until Matt Blair fully bumped Winston in 1976. It’s strange to look back and see that Siemon played at 235 lbs. He always looked bigger than that. Maybe it’s because Page, Eller, and Marshall weren’t much bigger. Maybe it’s simply because I was smaller. All of those Vikings were giants to me. Who knows? I do know that these young eyes could see that Siemon excelled at everything demanded of a linebacker in those days. He could defend the run. He could drop back in coverage. He was always where he needed to be. He was a great football player. 

Jeff Siemon was a great football player at every level of the game. His play at Bakersfield High School earned him induction into the California High School Hall of Fame. He was an All-American at Stanford and helped lead that pompous school to back-to-back Rose Bowl wins. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was a first round pick in the 1972 NFL Draft and earned Pro Bowl honors in four of his first six years with the Vikings. His excellent 11-year career in Minnesota earned him a spot in 2010 among the 50 Greatest Vikings. If the Vikings had managed to win even one of the three Super Bowls he played, Siemon would have an argument for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was one of the best middle linebackers of his era. Oh, that era. The 1970s were my introduction to football, the Minnesota Vikings, and the National Football League. I will always look back at those days with fondness. Honestly, it doesn’t really feel that long ago. On good days, Super Bowl XI doesn’t feel 50 damn years ago. On other days, I feel the time. I probably feel it most by those no longer here. That linebacker trio of my youth are all gone now. It takes the wind out of me. 

RIP Jeff Siemon

Vikings Offensive Line

The pre-draft run through the position groups of the Minnesota Vikings brings us to the offensive line.

Minnesota Vikings Offensive Line

Starters:

Christian Darrisaw

Donovan Jackson

Blake Brandel

Will Fries

Brian O’Neill 

The rest:

Ryan Van Demark

Michael Jurgens

Walter Rouse

Joe Huber

Henry Byrd

Vershon Lee

Caleb Etienne

Last offseason, the Vikings stressed improvement of the interior of the offensive line. Guard Will Fries and center Ryan Kelly were signed in free agency. Guard Donovan Jackson was selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. On paper, it looked like a success. On the field, it never really got started. Due to injuries, the projected starting offensive line played together for about 80 plays. Over the 17-game season, the re-made Vikings starting offensive line was on the field for the equivalent of about one game. The pre-game and in-game shuffling of the group was a significant reason for quarterback injuries and a wildly inconsistent offense. It’s a minor miracle the Vikings managed to win nine games. 

That was last season. This is a look at this season’s offensive line. The biggest change among the starting five is the retirement of center Ryan Kelly. For now, Blake Brandel is the placeholder at the position. Last season was his first time playing in the middle. He held up well. He held up well enough that he’s considered the potential starter now. Perhaps the biggest hope for the offensive line is that left tackle Christian Darrisaw returns to his form before the October 2024 kneed injury. His rehab from that injury seemed to be going well through training camp. Then came the regular season. Nearly every week was a “will he or won’t he play” question. Several times that decision came down to game time. Never knowing if or how long Darrisaw would play in each game was a problem. One of many problems. As a rookie, left guard Donovan Jackson improved throughout the season. As a big free agent signing returning from a significant leg injury, right guard Will Fries also improved throughout the season. The best days for both are in front of them. While tipping the clock at 30, 31 in September, Brian O’Neill is still an excellent and reliable at right tackle. 

With a healthy Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill at the tackle spots and Donovan Jackson and Will Fries at the guard spots, the Vikings have the foundation for one of the better offensive lines in the league. I expect the Vikings to find their center on Day 2 of the 2026 NFL Draft. With that, the starting offensive line has to stay on the field. A consistent offensive line and the Vikings are a contender. Because of the injuries and inconsistencies, the free agent signing of Ryan Van Demark is one of the most significant additions of the offseason. Finding a center in the draft allows Blake Brandel to back up nearly every position on the line. Van Demark and Brandel are outstanding, versatile backups and give the Vikings a strong seven offensive linemen. They need improvement from the remaining depth. Perhaps that improvement will come from one or more currently on the roster. As an undrafted rookie, Joe Huber showed potential in the one game he was forced to play last season. Former late-round pick tackle Walter Rouse certainly looks the part, After two seasons on the roster, he needs to show he’s more than ready if needed. The same can be said of center/guard Michael Jurgens. 

Up next: Defensive Line

Vikings Tight Ends

The tight ends are next in this pre-draft dive into the position groups of the Minnesota Vikings.

Minnesota Vikings Tight Ends

T.J. Hockenson

Josh Oliver

Ben Yurosek

Gavin Bartholomew

Bryson Nesbit

The Vikings tight end situation is remarkably similar to their running back position. Both position groups are topped by a talented player likely in their final year with the team. T.J. Hockenson has been mostly great in his 3.5 years in Minnesota. He’d probably be even better if it wasn’t for the knee injury that came from another Kerby Joseph cheap shot. That injury ended his 2023 and mostly wrecked his 2024 season. If it wasn’t for that injury, it’s possible that his contract wouldn’t have needed re-work and this 2026 wouldn’t be his last with the Vikings. When he’s healthy and the Vikings quarterback situation is healthy, Hockenson is a weapon. Josh Oliver is an excellent compliment to Hockenson and an outstanding blocker. Oliver’s role in the Vikings offense is significant. Gavin Bartholomew was a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He missed all of his rookie season with a preseason back injury. Ben Yurosek and Bryson Nesbit were undrafted free agents. Yurosek earned some playing time and had a couple catches. Bartholomew, Yurosek, and Nesbit are developmental prospects with a new position coach in Ryan Cordell. 

Like the Vikings running backs position, the tight end position isn’t an immediate need. That’s because the player that tops the depth chart is on the roster for one more season. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Vikings address the tight end position at any point in the draft. 

Next up: Offensive Line

Vikings Receivers

The receivers are next in this pre-draft look at the position groups of the Minnesota Vikings

Minnesota Vikings Receivers

Justin Jefferson

Jordan Addison

Tai Felton

Myles Price

Jeshaun Jones

Dontae Fleming

Joaquin Davis

With the free agency departure of productive WR3 Jalen Nailor, the Vikings receiver group has become Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and a bunch of guys. Jefferson and Addison are the best receiving duo in the league. Well, as long as Addison keeps himself on the field and out of trouble, they are the best receiving duo in the league. Tai Felton was drafted in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft to possibly replace Nailor as WR3. In his rookie season, he developed into a very good gunner. He had only a few appearances on offense. He had three catches for 25 yards in those appearances. Felton has terrific speed and natural athletic ability. Coming into the league, he was pigeon-holed as a receiver that needed touches manufactured for him. He can be a terror with the ball in his hands. He just has to refine and develop some of the nuances of the receiver position. The Vikings need Felton to take some steps forward on offense. As an undrafted rookie, Myles Price emerged as an impact returner last season. I’m not sure if much is expected from him on offense. Jeshaun Jones has spent two seasons on the Vikings practice squad. He did get promoted and appeared in one game last season. He had a couple catches in that game. Dontae Fleming was signed last spring after going undrafted. He spent the season on the practice squad. Joaquin Davis was signed to the practice squad in December and signed a reserve/future contract in January. The thing about Davis that stands out most is his 6’4” size. And he has decent speed for that size. 

The talents of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison can mask the need at the receiver position. The need is such that the Vikings should sign a free agent skilled and experienced enough to immediately step in as WR3. The position should also be considered early in the draft. Even if Tai Felton steps up and plays to the level expected of a player selected in the third round, receiver needs to be addressed in both free agency and early in the draft.

Next up; Tight Ends