2022 Draft Class - Initial Position Review

@aussie61 typically creates & maintains a Consensus Big Board thread for next year's Draft around this time of the year using the Tankathon website that compiles player rankings from various sources across the web. I'd like to use the current Tankathon player rankings for the Top 50 players as of right now (early Nov 2021) for two reasons: 1) to get an idea of what positions seems relatively "deep" across the 1st two rounds that may give an indication of how deep those positions are and compare that to the Top 50 positions for the past 3 Drafts, and 2) to share the names of some of the top prospects so all of us start getting familiar. At the time of this thread creation the Vikings are sitting at 3-4 with the likelihood of: no playoffs in 2021, some form of "regime" change early in the 2022 offseason and a mini-rebuild under a new regime...so it makes sense to start looking at the 2022 Draft season, IMO. 

Here is a link to the Tankathon 2022 Draft Big Board - link. It has the Top 100 listed, but I'll just list out the Top 50 below:

1 Kayvon Thibodeaux EDGE Oregon
2 Evan Neal OT Alabama
3 Kyle Hamilton S Notre Dame
4 Matt Corral QB Ole Miss
5 Derek Stingley, Jr CB LSU
6 Aidan Hutchinson EDGE Michigan
7 Malik Willis QB Liberty
8 DeMarvin Leal DT Texas A&M
9 George Karlaftis EDGE Purdue
10 Kenyon Green IOL Texas A&M
11 Andrew Booth, Jr CB Clemson
12 Kaiir Elam CB Florida
13 Tyler Linderbaum IOL Iowa
14 Chris Olave WR Ohio St
15 Ahmad Gardner CB Cincinnati
16 Garrett Wilson WR Ohio St
17 Jordan Davis DT Georgia
18 Treylon Burks WR Arkansas
19 Drake London WR USC
20 Drake Jackson EDGE USC
21 Sam Howell QB North Carolina
22 Trent McDuffie CB Washington
23 Ikem Ekwonu IOL NC State
24 Kingsley Enagbare EDGE South Carolina
25 Charles Cross OT Miss St
26 Adam Anderson EDGE Georgia
27 Darian Kinnard OT Kentucky
28 Carson Strong QB Nevada
29 Christian Harris LB Alabama
30 Nicholas Petit-Frere OT Ohio St
31 Myjai Sanders EDGE Cincinnati
32 Jahan Dotson WR Penn St
33 Isaiah Spiller RB Texas A&M
34 Trevor Penning OT Northern Iowa
35 Sean Rhyan OT UCLA
36 Jaxson Kirkland OT Washington
37 Kenny Pickett QB Pitt
38 Devin Lloyd LB Utah
39 Jalen Wydermyer TE Texas A&M
40 Nakobe Dean LB Georgia
41 Desmond Ridder QB Cincinnati
42 Jordan Battle S Alabama
43 Roger McCreary CB Auburn
44 Perrion Winfrey DT Oklahoma
45 Daxton Hill S Michigan
46 Zach Harrison EDGE Ohio St
47 George Pickens WR Georgia
48 Derion Kendrick CB Clemson
49 Zion Nelson OT Miami
50 John Metchie III WR Alabama

Here is the breakdown by position of the Top 50 across 2022 and the last 3 Drafts:

            2022     2021     2020     2019
QB         6             5         4             4
RB         1             3         3             1
WR        7             7         11           3
TE         1             1         1             3
OT         8             8         6             8
IOL        3             3         2             4
EDGE     8             7         5             7
DT         3             2         3             6
LB         3             3         4             4
CB         7             8         7             7
S           3             3         4             3
Total     50          50        50         50


Initial Thoughts:

- One of the biggest phrases we keep hearing from the 2022 Class is how bad the QB class is, so it's interesting to see that there are 6 QB prospects in the Top 50 and if that happens, that would be the most QB's in the Top 50 since 2011 which also had 6 in the Top 50. The difference between the 2022 Class and more recent classes is that the 2022 QB's probably won't go as high - in 2021, all 5 QB's in the Top 50 were drafted by the 15th pick, and the 2022 Class is spread out among the Top 50. So while the 2022 Class doesn't have much top-heavy "franchise" QB's, it may be a relatively "deeper" class of developmental QB's that may not be ready Day 1 (ie, less Justin Fields and Mac Jones and more Kellen Mond types). 

- I've followed the 2021 College Season pretty closely so far and my initial thought before I put this together was there wasn't a whole bunch of "sexy" blue-chip prospects at the top and it would be more line-of-scrimmage heavy, meaning a heavy dose of OL & DL prospects w/ some CB/WR sprinkled in there. What's interesting is how similar the position breakout of the 2022 class is to the 2021 class: EDGE, OT, WR, CB and QB are about the same. 

- The Vikings may be looking at IOL prospects yet again in 2022 and there doesn't seem to be a bunch of IOL prospects in the Top 50 - and that's with me counting Texas A&M Kenyon Green and South Carolina Ikem Ekwonu as IOL prospects when both are playing OT this season. I projected both as IOL because draft "experts" seem to be projecting them as OG's at the NFL level. Outside of Iowa C Tyler Linderbaum, there doesn't seem to be much there in terms of C or OG prospects. I do think Boston College OG Zion Johnson will end up being a Top 50 player when we get to April 2022, but if the Vikes do end up leaning towards the 2022 Draft for IOL help, they may need to go early.

- Outside of IOL and possibly LB, the Vikings 2022 needs at DE and CB seem to line up with the depth of the class, at least in terms of the first two rounds.