It is, officially, draft season for fans of the Minnesota Vikings (and for fans of 27 other NFL teams), and the unofficial start of draft season for a lot of us comes with the first mock draft from Mel Kiper. . .dramatic pause. . .draft expert. He’s released his first mock of the year over at ESPN, so we’ll have a look at who he’s got the Vikings taking with the 18th overall pick.
In his first mock, Kiper has the Vikings taking Louisiana State cornerback Mansoor Delane. Here’s what he’s got to say about the selection:
Delane would bring top-end ball skills and some really good coverage technique to Minnesota. The Vikings redid their cornerback room in 2025 free agency, but they still have depth problems behind Byron Murphy Jr. and Isaiah Rodgers. Plus, Minnesota managed just eight interceptions this season (tied for sixth fewest). Well, over the past two campaigns, Delane has six picks and 18 pass breakups. That’s impact production, and coordinator Brian Flores would love to get a player such as Delane into his unit.
Birds gonna fly, fish gonna swim, and Mel Kiper gonna mock a cornerback to the Vikings in Round 1. At least, it seems like that’s the way it goes most years, doesn’t it?
I do think that the Vikings could use another player at the cornerback position. I will admit that my bandwidth for scouting a lot of college players isn’t quite what it used to be so I’m not sure where Delane ranks among the cornerbacks that played in college this past year, but I’m going to make an effort to look more into those sorts of things over the course of the offseason in an effort to get some decent pre-draft content out there for folks to chew on between now and 23 April.
(Yes, the 2026 NFL Draft is, officially, less than three months away. It’s going to be here before we know it.)
So, what do you folks think about what Mel Kiper has the Vikings doing in Round 1 in his first mock of the year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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