With just nine days remaining until the NFL Draft, we’ve already seen countless mock drafts outlining a variety of strategies teams might employ. To keep things fresh, Pro Football Focus (PFF) took a creative approach with their latest mock. While some outlets limit mocks to skill positions or defense-only formats, PFF expanded the pool dramatically by allowing all college football players to be draft-eligible—regardless of age or class.
This twist, part of PFF’s annual College Football Mock Draft released Monday, naturally led to a run on quarterbacks early, which pushed top-tier talent further down the board. As a result, the Minnesota Vikings landed a standout defender at pick No. 24: Notre Dame sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore.
In the mock draft exercise conducted by Max Chadwick and Dalton Wasserman, Moore was selected due to his remarkable freshman season. As they explained:
“Moore finished his true freshman season as the third-most-valuable cornerback in college football, according to PFF’s Wins Above Average metric, trailing only Jahdae Barron and Travis Hunter. He thrived in Notre Dame’s man-heavy defense, earning an 82.5 PFF grade in man coverage—third-best among all college cornerbacks. He’s already PFF’s top returning cornerback heading into 2025, despite only entering his sophomore year.”
Moore, widely projected to be a top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, joins elite company with names like Barron and Hunter. While the Vikings can’t actually select him this year, the pick highlights how cornerback remains a smart and logical area of focus for Minnesota going forward.
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