"Mr. Mankato" 2024 Award

With rookies and veterans reporting to Viking's Training Camp just days away (rookies on Sunday, 7/21 and veterans on Tuesday, 7/23), it's also time for the annual fan tradition to predict and ultimately crown the "unofficial" award of "Mr. Mankato". For those not familiar with this now 11-yr old tradition, "Mr. Mankato" is typically awarded by SKOR North/Purple Daily crew (Mackey & Judd) to the top unheralded performer in Training Camp and the Preseason. The award is named after Makato - the Minnesota city where the team held its camps from 1966 to 2017 on the campus of Minnesota State University.

Qualifications:

There have been typically only two "qualifications" required:

1) the player can't have been drafted in the first two rounds, and
2) the player can't yet be an "established" NFL player (though they don't have to be a rookie)

Personally, I have two more "qualifications" that have been discussed in recent years on various podcasts and discussion boards that the Purple Daily crew should implement:

3) the player must be in their 1st or 2nd yr in the NFL, and not made the prior year's 53-man roster or played less than 100 off/def snaps in prior regular season (this expands the "established" NFL player criteria a bit more; also, no player has won after their 2nd yr in the NFL)
4) the player must make the current year's 53-man roster (Arif Hasan was a proponent of this last year)

Based on the these qualifications, here are the eligible players to win the 2024 "Mr. Makato" award:



Former Winners:

Here is a rundown of past "Mr. Mankato" 10 winners, what position they played, where they were drafted and what college/university they played for:

2014: Adam Thielen, WR, 2013 UDFA, Minnesota St.
2015: Stefon Diggs, WR, 2015 5th Rd, Maryland
2016: Jayron Kearse, S, 2016 7th Rd, Clemson
2017: Tashawn Bower, DE, 2017 UDFA, LSU
2018: Kyle Sloter, QB, 2017 UDFA (Denver), Northern Colorado
2019: Brandon Dillon, TE, 2019 UDFA, Marian
2020: Cam Dantzler, CB, 2020 3rd Rd, Miss St.
2021: N/A*
2022: Brian Asamoah, LB, 2022 3rd Rd, Oklahoma
2023: Ivan Pace, Jr., LB, 2023 UDFA, Cincinnati
*although not "official", many feel that KJ Osborn was the winner this year

Trends:

- Counting 2021, there are 5 winners for each side of the ball (Offense/Defense)
- No ST player has ever won 
- The WR and LB positions (even without counting Osborn in 2021), are the positions with the most winners with 2
- The last 3 "official" winners have been on defense 
- RB/FB or OL are the 2 offensive positions that haven't won
- 2 out of the last 3 "official" winners have been 3rd Rd picks
- Undrafted playes have won the most (5)
- 7 of the 9 "official" winners won it in the year they were drafted/or signed as an UDFA; Thielen and Sloter won it the following year
- Players from non-Power 5 Conferences have won the most (3); the SEC/BIG XII are the only Power 5 Conferences with multiple winners

2023 Purple Pain "Winners":

No one had Ivan Pace, Jr. winning last season before Training Camp started. Here was last year's thread - link

Vikings Media Predictions:

Here are some predictions from various Vikings online media:

Locked-On Sports Minnesota Podcast



Vikings Territory - link

Tyler Forness (via The Sporting News) - link