Heading into the 2020 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings have multiple holes that need to be addressed. This week on KFAN.com, there will be a series of draft prospects being highlighted before the draft starts on Thursday night.
With the loss Stephen Weatherly and Everson Griffen still testing the free agency market, the Vikings are going to have to find some pass rushing help. Ifeadi Odenigbo showed flashes last season, but at the very least the Vikings will have to address the position for depth purposes.
Some mocks have had the Vikings selecting an edge rusher in the first round, but historically speaking the team has found talented pass rushers in the middle rounds.
Danielle Hunter was a third round pick out of LSU, while Everson Griffen was taken in the fourth round out of USC. It doesn’t seem likely that the Vikings will use an early round on a defensive end, and they shouldn’t have to with Jabari Zuniga.
Zuniga is raw and has the ideal build for an edge rusher at 6’3 253 pounds. He plays the game with a lot of power and speed, something the Vikings coaching staff has been historically good at grooming over the years.
It’s impossible to predict how mid round picks will pan out at the NFL level, but Zuniga seems like an ideal fit for the Vikings defense. Most mock drafts have him going anywhere in the third to fourth round, the two rounds the Vikings have found two of their most recent elite pass rushers.
When Hunter was selected in the third round, a lot of the draft analysts had him labeled similar to Zuniga. With the help of Andre Patterson, Hunter has been turned into an elite pass rusher at the NFL level, and it’s possible they could decide to select someone similar in this draft class.
Stay tuned for more draft profiles coming throughout this week on KFAN.com. The profiles will be addressing positions of need for the Vikings, and there will also be reaction pieces available after each day of the draft.