How Has the Vikings' Donovan Jackson Selection Aged After One Year?

With the college football season in the books and the NFL playoffs winding down, mock drafts are starting to trickle out at a greater pace as the NFL media landscape begins to shift its focus towards April's draft. But as we look ahead to this year's draft, we also thought it would be interesting to take a look back at who was most frequently mocked to the Vikings in the months and weeks leading up to last year's draft and compare them to how well Minnesota's pick actually performed.

With the No. 24 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Vikings selected Ohio State guard Donovan Jackson. It was a move that earned plenty of praise, as it helped shore up a long-standing area of need for the Vikings. During his rookie season, Jackson mostly performed well and made the Vikings look like they made a good decision.

Jackson played in 14 of the team's 17 games, missing time early in the season due to a wrist injury. The first-year guard finished his season with a 65.7 PFF pass block grade, which was the 27th-best in the league among all guards. While his pass blocking proved starter worthy, his run blocking needed improving. He finished with a 57.2 PFF run blocking grade, which was 55th-best among the league's guards. According to PFF, the rookie allowed 26 total pressures and just two sacks in 468 pass block snaps in 2025.

Overall, the pick of Jackson looks like a promising one and gives Vikings fans hope of having one of the best pairings in the league on the left side of the offensive line with tackle Christian Darrisaw.

But how did Jackson's rookie season compare to that of other players who were regularly mocked to the Vikings? Let's dive in.

To find out who was most frequently mocked, we used the Mock Draft Database website. There, we found that in the week leading up to the draft, the most mocked player to Minnesota was safety Nick Emmanwori, followed by safety Malaki Starks, defensive tackle Derrick Harmon, and corner Jahdae Barron. Expanding the view out to a month, the only change is swapping out Harmon for corner Shavon Revel Jr.

Emmanwori was one of two players on this list that were still available when Minnesota was up with the No. 24 pick. He's also probably the only one where you could make a strong argument that the Vikings should have taken him over Jackson. While one interception and 2.5 sacks don't really jump off the charts, it's how well the young safety did in coverage that stands out. According to PFF, Emmanwori was tied at the top of the league for the most pass breakups (9) this season among all safeties. His 68.5 PFF pass coverage grade was 27th-best in the league and notably better than all Vikings safeties. If Minnesota had taken Emmanwori, they would have had their natural replacement for Cam Bynum, whose loss the Vikings' defense certainly felt this season.

Starks was the other player still available when Minnesota was up at No. 24. Unlike Emmanwori, the jury is still relatively out on Starks. The former Georgia safety registered just one pass breakup and a 64.9 pass coverage grade, according to PFF. His finished the season with two interceptions (one of which came against J.J. McCarthy) but just didn't make the same mark on defense that Emmanwori has in Seattle. While Starks could still eventually develop into a good safety, it currently looks like Minnesota made the right choice in taking Jackson.

Harmon and Barron were both gone by the time the Vikings selected at No. 24, but we thought we would include them as comparisons anyways. Harmon, while highly touted coming out of college, struggled to impress for Pittsburgh this season. He played in just 12 games, starting eight, while finishing the season with three sacks and one additional tackle for loss. His 49.9 overall PFF defensive grade was in the bottom-50 among all defensive tackles this season. According to PFF, he did create 23 total pressures, which was just outside of the top-50 among defensive tackles. Granted he wasn't available, Minnesota got the better pick, at least in year one, with Jackson.

Barron had one of the worst pass coverage grades (44.8) among all corners this season, according to PFF. Despite using a first-round pick to get him, the top-ranked Broncos defense started Barron in just five games this season. Barron finished with one interception and one fumble recovery. When targeted in 2025, he allowed 28 catches for 293 yards and two touchdowns. Opposing quarterbacks throwing to receivers covered by Barron had a 92.7 QB rating. The young corner's rookie season was a struggle, though his future may still be bright.

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