2013 NFL mock draft: Minnesota Vikings select...

The Vikings are coming off of a pretty successful year, making the playoffs with a regular season record of 10-6 and a loss to Green Bay (who they beat Week 17) in the Wild Card round. Their free agency success is debatable as they lost Percy Harvin, Antoine Winfield, and Jasper Brinkley, but gained a 1st, a 7th, and a mid-round pick in next year's draft. Their biggest signing was Greg Jennings to a 5-year $47.5 million deal.

Needs

The Vikings are left with holes at WR, ILB, CB, and DT. With Antoine Winfield departing in free agency, the Vikings will look to add depth at the position early in the draft. The loss of Jasper Brinkley isn't huge but it does leave a big hole at ILB. They need somebody to line up opposite Jennings to rev up their passing offense which lacked last year because of constant double teams on Percy Harvin. They got away with this mostly because of Adrian Peterson and his tremendous season. At DT, they're looking to upgrade, and could afford to wait a round to grab somebody.

Choice

Looking at the draft board, many of the players I would have liked to pick have been taken such as Sheldon Richardson, Sylvester Williams, Jonathan Cooper, Keenan Allen, Tavon Austin, Desmond Trufant, and Alec Ogletree. On draft day, look for those players to be taken if they fall to the Vikings.

Seeing as they have 2 picks in the first round, I won't go in-depth into the other players I'm looking at.

Anyways, here is the pick...

Cordarrelle Patterson, WR, Tennessee

Patterson is an extremely gifted player in all aspects of his game. He has the size, the speed, and route-running abilities that you would expect a 1st rounder to have. However, one of the things you can't measure is playmaking ability and that's exactly what Patterson has. Here is a highlight tape of his junior year, in which he set the Tennessee all-purpose yards record.

He has extremely quick cuts and is a dangerous downfield runner (sound familiar?). Tennessee used him in a lot of different ways just like the Vikings used Harvin. He has experience running the reverse, which Harvin thrived in, has the "deep-threat" ability, and can change directions extremely fast.

Not only can he make a difference on offense but he can return punts as well as almost anyone already in the NFL. The only problem I see with Patterson is that he can sometimes make too many cuts, or try to do too much by himself, like running backwards and across the field and counting on his speed to bail him out. This probably won't work as well in the NFL as most players have top-level speed, especially on special teams. That said, he still is very dangerous in the return game and will make an immediate impact on Offense and Special Teams.

I will admit it was hard to pass on some of the players that fell to me, but a good amount of Vikings fans from the Daily Norseman approve of this pick so I feel completely comfortable taking him. Anyway, see you guys in two picks!

AP draft order:

1. Kansas City (R2J_24) - Luke Joeckel, Texas A&M, LT
2. Jacksonville - GenericBrand - Geno Smith, West Virginia, QB
3. Oakland - mushin - Sharrif Floyd, Florida, DT
4. Philadelphia - ex-qb13 - Dee Milliner, Alabama, CB
5. Detroit - Ben Martin - Eric Fisher, Central Michigan, OT
6. Cleveland - The Dank Dank - Dion Jordan, Oregon, DE/LB
7. Arizona - SillyHatDay - Matt Barkley, USC, QB
8. Buffalo - ArrowDread - Keenan Allen, Cal, WR
9. New York Jets - MtHammer - Chance Warmack, Alabama, G
10. Tennessee - ejr58 - Jonathan Cooper, North Carolina, G
11. San Diego - Chief TigerGator - Star Lotulelei, Utah, DT
12. Miami - cmac87 - Lane Johnson, Oklahoma, OT
13. Tampa Bay - NigerianNightmare - Sheldon Richardson, Missouri, DT
14. Carolina - citadelchief - Kenny Vaccaro, Texas, S
15. New Orleans - craig in calgary - Barkevious Mingo, LSU, DE
16. St. Louis - KVin2 - Tavon Austin, West Virginia, WR
17. Pittsburgh -ChiefMojo - Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah, BYU, DE/LB
18. Dallas - iamthegreatest - Bjoern Werner, Florida State, DE
19. New York Giants - Topchief1 - Jarvis Jones, Georgia, LB
20. Chicago - Everest - Alec Ogletree, Georgia, LB
21. Cincinnati - Akr_Baby - Desmond Trufant, Washington, CB
22. St. Louis from Washington - KVin2 - Sylvester Williams, UNC, DT
23. Minnesota - YoungAnalyst - Cordarrelle Patterson, Tennessee, WR
24. Indianapolis - saskwatch
25. Minnesota from Seattle - YoungAnalyst
26. Green Bay - nateforchiefs
27. Houston - RhodyChief
28. Denver - ravenhawk
29. New England - BeeRadd
30. Atlanta - bradelli58
31. San Francisco - How to: Sabotage
32. Baltimore - Ben S