Vikings Draft 2020: Offseason seven-round mock draft

With the 2019 season coming to an end for the Minnesota Vikings, let’s take a dive into a seven-round 2020 mock draft and see who the Vikings might pick.

The 2019 season for the Minnesota Vikings definitely did not end how the team or the fans wanted it to end.

Despite being the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoff bracket, the hope was still for the Vikings to return to the Super Bowl this year. Minnesota was not expected to win their divisional round matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, but the glaring issues that we saw all year from the Vikings were on full display in this game.

There was a lot to be happy with when you look back on Minnesota’s 2019 season as a whole. Dalvin Cook continued to impress and take strides towards being a top-tier back in the NFL. The Vikings’ offensive line looks to be heading in the right direction with assistant coach Rick Dennison and the guys they have in the position group. Minnesota might just be a piece away from having a stout group of blockers in 2020.

The Vikings’ edge rushers, Danielle Hunter and Everson Griffen continued to be a force that opposing offensive lines continued to struggle with week after week. Eric Kendricks continued to play at an extremely high level. Anthony Harris has developed into the perfect compliment to Harrison Smith and he was one of the better safeties in the league in 2019.

Now for the bad part. Despite Minnesota’s improved offensive line, the unit still needs to get much, much better. Cook had to constantly fight through the garbage to find running lanes this season. Kirk Cousins didn’t have enough time to throw and he held the ball too long far too often, which is another problem on its own.

When Adam Thielen went down with a hamstring injury in the middle of the year, the lack of the Vikings’ depth in the wide receiver room really showed. Minnesota’s interior of the defensive line was not nearly as dominant as it was this season as it was in the past.

Do we even need to talk about how poorly the Vikings’ secondary played all year? Xavier Rhodes has hit his decline very hard and a lot quicker than anyone really expected. Trae Waynes was consistently decent, but he still did not flash the ability to be the No. 1 corner on Minnesota’s depth chart.

Combine all of these glaring issues with the key players who have contracts that will expire in 2020 and the fact that the Vikings’ salary cap situation is currently a mess. Minnesota has found ways around their cap issues before and they can probably do it again this year. Still, the Vikings might be in for an intense offseason with massive turnover.

One way for Minnesota to fix some of their issues is to draft quality players this year. Who the Vikings select in the 2020 NFL Draft will be a telling sign of how well the team will perform in the near future.

So let’s not waste any more time and dive into a seven-round mock draft to see if we can solve some of Minnesota’s biggest issues heading into the offseason.