2020 NFL mock draft: Minnesota Vikings select Jaylon Johnson

We’ve finally made it to another NFC North foe in our Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft. The Minnesota Vikings are coming off a disappointing year. After an extremely promising 8-3 start, Minnesota lost three of its final five games, leading to a 10-6 record and no postseason a loss in the second round of the playoffs.

It’s been a rough offseason for Minnesota thus far. Tight under the salary cap, the Vikings haven’t made much in terms of additions, and they’ve lost a ton of bodies. Everson Griffen, Linval Joseph, Trae Waynes, Mackensie Alexander, Xavier Rhodes, and Andrew Sendejo are all gone. And that’s just the defense.

So it will be up to POD commenter elgarraz to pick up the slack here. Luckily, the Vikings have both the 22nd and the 25th pick in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. With the 22nd pick in the POD Community Mock, the Vikings have selected Utah cornerback Jaylon Johnson.

Here’s elgarras to explain the pick:

“For a team hoping to win a division title, Minnesota has a lot of holes. The biggest hole is at corner. The Vikings opted to let arguably their top 2 corners go in free agency, which is why I went with Jaylon Johnson.

This mock didn’t play out well for the Vikings, with 11 of the 21 picks ahead of them being spent on their top 3 positions of need. Even so, I don’t feel this is a reach at all. Johnson is a solid all-around corner, with good size, quickness, and decent top-end speed. He plays well in zone or man coverage, which is good for the Vikings since they like to mix it up. He’s a good press corner, and his size should translate to the NFL. While he doesn’t appear to be elite in any one area, Johnson is really, really good at several things, and almost everything you want an NFL corner to do, he does well.

Right now, the Vikings have Holton Hill penciled in at one of the starting CB spots, but he’s not as strong in man as he is in zone, and he’s had some problems staying on the field. They need to draft a corner who’s ready to go on day 1 and who can cover in man or zone. Johnson may not make a sea of Pro Bowls throughout his career, but he projects as a solid CB1 in any system. I’d take that with the 22nd pick in the draft.”

Catch up with all the picks from our POD Community Mock here.