Mike Mayock Offers His Pre-Combine Position Rankings

Apr 28, 2011; New York, NY, USA; NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock during the 2011 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The combine is coming up this week. A feast for draft wonks. Mike Mayock is among the biggest draft wonks and he will no doubt be all over the combine. Who will emerge from the overhyped event with higher draft stock? Whose stock will fall? We’ll find out. Let’s set it up by looking at Mayock’s pre-combine rankings, focusing on the positions of primary interest for Viking fans. The boldfaced players are those I’ve seen connected to the Vikings already via expert mocks and other various reports.

Wide Receiver

1. Cordarrelle Patterson, Tennessee
2. Keenan Allen, Cal 
3. Terrance Williams, Baylor 
4. Tavon Austin, West Virginia
5. Quinton Patton, Louisiana Tech

Patterson seems to be the consensus #1 receiver right now. It’s unlikely he’ll fall to 23.

Defensive Tackle

1. Sharrif Floyd, Florida
2. Star Lotulelei, Utah
3. Sheldon Richardson, Missouri
4. Sylvester Williams, North Carolina
T-5. Kawann Short, Purdue 
T-5. Johnathan Hankins, Ohio State

Lotulelei has been projected as the #1 DT for most of the offseason. But Mayock has Floyd #1. No question, there’s a ton of depth at this position.

Inside Linebacker

1. Alec Ogletree, Georgia
2. Manti Te’o, Notre Dame
3. Kevin Minter, LSU
4. Kevin Reddick, North Carolina
5. Kiko Alonso, Oregon

Haven’t seen the Vikings taking a linebacker in a lot of mocks. But it’s a position to keep an eye on. Interesting that Ogletree has now overtaken Te’o as the #1 MLB. Are the experts overreacting to the Te’o controversy? Or are teams genuinely that leery. Ogletree is interesting. He has tons of talent but is very raw and will need plenty of work to become an NFL linebacker. He’s probably not a first round pick but you never know.

Cornerback

1. Dee Milliner, Alabama
2. Xavier Rhodes, Florida State
3. Johnthan Banks, Mississippi State
4. Desmond Trufant, Washington
5. Jordan Poyer, Oregon State

Haven’t really seen any of these names seriously connected to the Vikings. Most mocks go WR or DT. Blidi Wreh-Wilson of Connecticut is the one guy who comes up but Mayock doesn’t even have him in the top five.

We’ll see how Mayock adjusts these rankings after the combine. Someone will have a bad bench press and get dropped. I can already smell the overreacting.

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