Mock Draft Tuesday: The NFL Draft is closing in on the Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings are nine days away from making their selections in the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh. With this being our second-to-last team-specific mock draft of the season, it will be a "what we would do" mock draft. We wanted to share some different picks after weeks of seeing the same thing over and over again, so yes, that means we no longer will end up with Dillon Thieneman.

Just because we are avoiding Thieneman doesn't mean that the Vikings won't end up with an elite defender being added to the secondary, either.

To make sure that happens, we made a trade to start this mock draft that has Minnesota leaping into the top 10 selections. We have them acquiring the 8th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and a 2027 fourth-round pick in exchange for the 18th, 82nd, and 97th overall picks in the 2026 NFL Draft, as well as a 2027 third-round pick.

In making that trade, we land a difference maker for the secondary, as well as some other key players:

• Round 1, Pick 8: Mansoor Delane, CB, LSU

• Round 2, Pick 49: Gabe Jacas, Edge, Illinois

• Round 5, Pick 163: Kaytron Allen, RB, Penn State

• Round 6, Pick 196: Cole Wisniewski, S, Texas Tech

• Round 7, Pick 234: Riley Nowakowski, TE/FB, Indiana

• Round 7, Pick 235: J. Michael Sturdivant, WR, Florida

• Round 7, Pick 244: Deven Eastern, DL, Minnesota

The defense gets a facelift with the arrival of Mansoor Delane, who can step in and challenge to become the CB1 alongside Byron Murphy Jr. Also, getting more pass rush help and defensive line depth will go a long way for the unit up front.

On offense, Kaytron Allen can compete for carries out of the backfield and perhaps make Jordan Mason the odd man out. Outside of him, the other impactful player would be Riley Nowakowski, who comes in and replaces fan favorite C.J. Ham, who retired this offseason.

This article originally appeared on Vikings Wire: NFL Mock Draft: Vikings continue to be projected new defenders