Vikings’ Most Common 2025 Mock Draftees: Where Did They Land?
There were some first-round names that were very heavily mocked to the Vikings in the weeks and months leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft, and just about all of them ended up somewhere else when all was said and done on Thursday night.
Not many saw Ohio State guard Donovan Jackson going to the Vikings at 24th overall, let alone the first round altogether, but the NFL Draft is completely unpredictable, just as Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders dropped from top-5 contention to the 5th round.
So, where did these gentlemen who were very heavily tied to the Minnesota Vikings end up?
IDL Derrick Harmon – Pittsburgh Steelers
The pure chaos-creating and space-eating interior defensive lineman of Oregon Duck lore landed in the Steel City with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night. The Steelers took him with the 21st overall pick, a spot where many thought we all might see Pittsburgh take QB Shedeur Sanders.
Instead, the Steelers have another dawg on the defensive side of the ball, and he’ll learn from some of the best in the business like T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward, and be paired with one of the most highly-respected head coaches in the industry in Mike Tomlin, who has a specialty on managing a defense.
OL Grey Zabel – Seattle Seahawks
The versatile offensive lineman out of North Dakota State gained a lot of Vikings-related steam as we approached the 2025 NFL Draft. Of course, the Vikings did end up solidifying what could be one of the scariest offensive lines in the league in the first round with Donovan Jackson, but if they preferred Zabel, then it was tough luck since the NDSU tackle (that is projected to be a guard in the NFL) didn’t make it to 24, as he was selected by the Seattle Seahawks with pick 18 of the first round.
Zabel will team up with Charles Cross on an improving Seattle offensive line under the direction of second-year head coach Mike McDonald, with the duty to protect former Vikings QB Sam Darnold, who signed a three-year agreement to stay in the Pacific Northwest.
CB Jahdae Barron – Denver Broncos
Jahdae Barron will continue to don the color orange as he transitions from the collegiate level in Texas to the pro level in Denver with up-and-coming Sean Payton-led Broncos.
Barron will have a great opportunity to succeed right away, as he will be in a cornerback room with one of the best corners in the league in Patrick Surtain II on a defense that ranked seventh in yards per game allowed and third in points per game allowed, but also the 13th-most passing yards allowed per game in 2024.
Vikings Pass On Will Johnson, Maxwell Hairston, Shavon Revel Jr., and Benjamin Morrison
In a bit of a shock, the Vikings decided not to take a corner at 24, nor trade down with every corner available on the board with the exception of Jahdae Barron, who went 20th to Denver.
Maxwell Hairston out of Kentucky was the next corner to come off the board at 30th overall to the Buffalo Bills. Will Johnson of Michigan fell to the second round, where he was taken 47th overall by the Arizona Cardinals.
Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison fell to 53rd overall, where the Buccaneers claimed him. ECU’s Shavon Revel Jr., with the interesting perspective of there being a belief the Vikings would consider taking him at 24th overall, fell all the way to the third round and was selected 76th overall by the Dallas Cowboys and their almost completely brand-new coaching staff.
Perhaps the Vikings in the NFL knew something the rest of us don’t (which would make sense), but seeing every team pass on these players at least once spells out the fact that these teams have a much different view on the 2025 CB class than the rest of us did.
Vikings Were Never Positioned Well to Take a High-End RB
After the trade for Jordan Mason with the San Francisco 49ers, the likelihood of the Vikings taking a RB with either of their first two picks tanked dramatically. Still, it was a hot-button topic for a long time before the trade, so we’ll cover it here.
Of course, the Vikings were never going to have a shot at Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty, who ended up going 6th overall to the Las Vegas Raiders, making him the first RB since Saquon Barkley in 2018 to be taken in the top 6 selections, as well as the first RB to go 6th overall since John Riggins in 1971.
However, the rest of the high-end RB prospect pool seemed to have a decent chance to be taken at 24, specifically Omarion Hampton out of UNC. That changed when the Los Angeles Chargers drafted Hampton at 22nd overall, two picks before the Vikings. The next RB wouldn’t go until 36th overall. Quinshon Judkins, out of Ohio State, is staying put in the state and heading to Cleveland.
The last name in that pool of RBs was Kaleb Johnson out of Iowa, and at the moment he was drafted at 83rd overall (another commonly mocked-drafted Viking to the Pittsburgh Steelers), Minnesota was still at 97th overall, though they eventually traded down to 102.
The 2025 NFL Draft goes to show that predicting the event is a complete crapshoot, especially for us, the common fans. It’s completely impossible to fathom where the players that you have your heart set on most will go, and Vikings fans learned that in multiple ways during this year’s iteration of the annual extravaganza.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be happy with the draft; the Vikings did pretty well to stick to their plan and long-term vision. That also doesn’t mean that doing hundreds of different mock drafts during the lead-up to the event isn’t really fun; it absolutely is, and we will never stop because it rocks so much.
Vikings Lay Claim to a Highly-Rated 2025 UDFA