The 5 Frontrunners to Join the Vikings on Draft Night
The 2025 NFL Draft will hit your living room television screen in four days.
The 5 Frontrunners to Join the Vikings on Draft Night
Nobody quite knows for sure who the Minnesota Vikings might lock in with their first draft selection, the 24th overall pick. The club could even trade down to nab more picks. It has just four as it stands on the weekend before the event.
But generally speaking, after three months of the draft’s build-up, these are the five frontrunners to join Minnesota’s roster on Thursday night, ranked in ascending order (No. 1 = Minnesota’s draft frontrunner).
5. Jahdae Barron (CB)
Texas
Barron checks in at No. 5 on this — so, the bottom — because he may not be on the board when Minnesota calls its pick into the podium.
The Texas defender might even join a new team in the Top 12.
Still, if he falls to No. 24, Barron offers the size, versatility, and talent that would be perfect for Brian Flores’ system. Flores has quite a few young cornerbacks on the depth chart, but Barron may be too irresistible with Minnesota’s first pick.
It’s all about whether he’ll be on the board when it’s general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s turn.
4. Malaki Starks (S)
Georgia
Minnesota tried this three years ago — drafting a physically gifted safety from Georgia — and the strategy wholly and undeniably flopped. Lewis Cine flamed out after a couple of seasons, one of which ended with a gruesome leg fracture.
But just because Cine didn’t work in Minnesota doesn’t mean Starks is doomed to follow suit.
The Vikings might need a new safety after Harrison Smith retires, and drafting Starks now would get a jump on the replacement process. Starks is a ruthlessly good run defender.
3. Grey Zabel (iOL)
North Dakota State
Under Adofo-Mensah, the Vikings don’t frequently draft players from smaller schools, but there’s a first time for everything.
Zabel has the rare ability to play nearly every position on a team’s offensive line, and Minnesota may ask him to do that, at times, for the duration of his rookie contract. To start, however, the Vikings would toss him in the left guard hole, currently manned by Blake Brandel.
The North Dakota state lineman is 23 years old, and Adofo-Mensah usually prefers 21-year-old 1st-Rounders, but he makes the cut on this list at No. 3, nevertheless.
2. Nick Emmanwori (S)
South Carolina
A simple rule of thumb on this year’s Round 1 safeties: the aforementioned Starks is the run-stopping safety, and Emmanwori is the pass-coverage guy.
His ball-tracking and receiver-menacing ways will cook in Flores’ defense. Emmanwori has also morphed into a mock draft favorite for Minnesota. About one of every three credible mock drafts you might click on this week will have Emmanwori linked to the purple team at No. 24.
Pro Football Network‘s Joe DeLeone on Emmanwori: “The NFL covets speed and size at every defensive position, meaning Emmanwori’s NFL Draft stock will be significantly boosted following his amazing showing at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine. With a 4.38-second 40-yard dash and a 43-inch vertical jump, Emmanwori arguably had the greatest testing performance by a safety ever in Indianapolis.”
“With so many boxes checked, Emmanwori is likely to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Even though the NFL typically doesn’t value safeties early in the draft, he still will be highly sought after and could be the first safety picked overall.”
That’ll work.
1. Derrick Harmon (DT)
Oregon
Vikings fans believe Harmon will be the Vikings’ first pick.
The mock draft community is pretty set on Emmanowri, but because defensive tackle might be more of a long-term need if Minnesota is serious about building the trenches, Harmon gets the nod at No. 1.
Harmon doesn’t have many weaknesses as a bull-rushing three-technique DT, but he only really tabulated one ultra-productive season in college — his final year at Oregon after transferring from Michigan State.
Ask around the Vikings fan base over the next few days, and you’ll probably find that Harmon feels like the frontrunner by a whisker over Emmanwori and Zabel.
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