If there's any must-read draft material every year, it's courtesy Dane Brugler.

The Athletic on Wednesday dropped the 2025 version of Brugler's comprehensive draft guide, which contains 401 scouting reports, rankings for more than 2,600 players and almost 300,000 – yes – words.

Even better, this iteration of “The Beast” has a savvy, updated digital look that's objectively easy to peruse and jumps to sections such as Brugler's big board, specific positions and needs for each team.

Brugler's colleague at The Athletic and Vikings beat writer, Alec Lewis, accurately summed up the undertaking as "hilariously impressive." For that reason and the fact Brugler is well-respected in media circles and garners a ton of eyes, annually, on his guide, we thought it smart to note some highlights.

For starters, here's what "The Beast" says about Minnesota: General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah needs a productive draft. His 2022 class bore little fruit. Minnesota's roster remains older. The Vikings don't take as many elite testers as they used to. It's now more about scheme fit, aptitude and mindset.

That latter point, especially, seems like a spot-on assessment and mirrors the organizational goal to acquire and develop players who are smart, tough and love football – basically, the leadership's MO.

Brugler outlined these positions as the biggest needs for the Vikings: DT, G, CB and RB.

Based on that information, and Brugler's extensive profiling of draftable players, let's check in on a couple of picks made by Lewis in his newest seven-round Vikings mock draft shared Thursday morning.

Lewis prefaced his selections with the following:

This is mock draft 3.0. Fourteen days remain until the 2025 NFL Draft, and this will serve as the penultimate check-in. Our first simulation began with an interior offensive lineman, and our second stuck with the trenches. Both included trades and six total selections, and this one will, too. Here are the picks:

• Round 2, No. 33 (via Browns): Donovan Jackson, OL, Ohio State
• Round 3, No. 67 (via Browns): Shemar Turner, DT, Texas A&M
• Round 3, No. 97: Andrew Mukuba, S, Texas
• Round 5, No. 139: Mac McWilliams, CB, UCF
• Round 6, No. 187: Jimmy Horn, Jr., WR, Colorado
• Round 6, No. 192 (via Browns): Brashard Smith, RB, SMU

Of course, this scenario is dependent on adding draft capital to Minnesota's current four picks, which Lewis accomplishes by proposing the Vikings send No. 24 to Cleveland in swap for Nos. 33, 67 and 192.

In his analysis, Lewis mentions that Minnesota's plan at the top of the draft is not obvious. That's partly because it's in a prime location to trade back (in exchange for more picks). Also, its roster gained substantial reinforcements in free agency, lowering its need to score an instant starter at any one spot.

Lewis' projected top choices, Jackson and Turner, are the No. 6 players at their respective positions.

On the Ohio State offensive lineman, Brugler said, "Jackson's sustain and recovery hiccups must be addressed by an NFL coaching staff, but his athletic traits and play strength should translate well to the next level. He projects as an NFL starter, and his tape shows a player with true tackle-guard versatility."

And on Turner, the 56^th overall prospect in his Top 100, Brugler wrote, "Turner needs to introduce more discipline to his play style, but he prides himself on being the aggressor and relies on his initial twitch, fierce hands and combative mentality to be a factor. He projects best as a penetrating one-gap tackle."

Peep Lewis' complete mock draft, littered with insights from Brugler and himself, here.

PFF lists best Day 3 fits

Since we shared a rundown Tuesday of the best second- and third-round player fits, according to Pro Football Focus analyst Mason Cameron, we're jumping back into that pond to study his Day 3 targets.

On Thursday, Cameron performed the same exercise for the final day of the 2025 event, and linked Mississippi's JJ Pegues to Minnesota. (Note: Pegues is Brugler's DT22 and carries a 4th-5th round grade).

Cameron explained:

The Ole Miss fan-favorite is a relentless, high-energy player, evidenced by his high-percentile grades as a run defender (87^th) and pass rusher on true pass sets (84^th). Given the creativity of Brian Flores and Kevin O'Connell, there's no better landing spot to make full use of Pegues' skill set.

The explicit nod to Minnesota's head coach, who calls Vikings offensive plays, isn't a mistake as Pegues is a converted former tight end and played 50-plus snaps on offense for the Rebels in 2024, assuming various backfield roles and rushing for 69 yards and seven touchdowns on 21 attempts (3.3-yard avg.).

Pegues registered a 57 athleticism score at the combine, 32^nd among this class of defensive tackles, but his versatility could be an asset.

Similar to Tuesday's debrief, we're including ideal Day 3 fits for the rest of the NFC North:

In Cameron's best-case scenario, Chicago takes an akin approach to Minnesota and targets South Carolina interior defender Tonka Hemingway; Detroit supplements its receiving corps with Colorado State WR Tory Horton; and Green Bay boosts its defense with Boise State EDGE Ahmed Hassanein.

Cameron's entire article can be read here.

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