The Vikings need help at linebacker. The top trio of Blake Cashman, Eric Wilson, and Ivan Pace aren’t without some promise, but a high-end young fella would make quite the difference.

As a result, the recent news surrounding a Bearcat ‘backer should cause those who follow Vikings football to take notice. KTSP’s Darren Wolfson offers the word, writing, “Add Cincinnati linebacker Jake Golday to the list of #Vikings draft visitors. Hear that he’ll be in later this week. He was 1st team All-Big 12 in 2025.”

Vikings Digging into Jake Golday

Lance Zierlein grinds through draft profiles; Golday didn’t elude his pre-draft research.

Check out the assessment: “Golday is a big, explosive linebacker with a game best suited for work near the line of scrimmage. He attacks climbing blockers with heavy, aggressive hands. He also shows the strength to stack, compress gaps and finish with authority. While his performance at the point of attack stands out, he can be a little late diagnosing play design and needs to work with a more preemptive downhill trigger at times. He’s more powerful than elusive as a blitzer and is average in coverage. Golday’s traits, explosiveness and field demeanor should make him an early special teams standout with the potential to eventually start at Sam or inside linebacker.”

Lots to like within the description. Possessing good size and being explosive will always fascinate football evaluators, but there are other intriguing details in the short blurb.

A linebacker wants to pack electricity in his mitts. Quite often, being able to fend off climbing blockers — an unfair fight due to not having the same size — involves powerful hands that can knock a lineman back. Having long arms and bad intentions certainly helps in this regard.

Zierlein’s assessment is that he’s more of a downhill player who needs polish to become stronger in all aspects of being a linebacker, but that’s to be expected of a young fella going in the 2nd. Having close to zero flaws means going in the top ten, not the top fifty.

At 6’4″ and close to 240 pounds, Jake Golday comes in with a build that’s closer to Anthony Barr (6’5″, 255) than Eric Kendricks (6’0″, 230). Blending their abilities would be a nice win, but that’s quite a lofty standard. In theory, Golday should be someone who can hang with tight ends due to his size, wrestle in the trenches, and chase down runners with his long arms and 4.6 speed.

During the 2025 season, Golday tossed up 105 tackles. He did so while also putting 3.5 sacks, 6 tackles for loss, 3 passes defended, and 1 forced fumble onto the stat sheet.

A large part of what makes him a fit for the Vikings is that he got shuffled around. Per PFF, Golday’s most recent season involved picking up 314 snaps in the box, 248 snaps in the slot, and 117 snaps along the defensive line. That’s the sort of versatility that can be hard to come by, but Brian Flores tends to value those players.

As mentioned, both of Wilson and Pace similarly played linebacker at Cincinnati while in college. Furthermore, the Vikings have been looking into Jack Dingle, another Bearcat linebacker. The interest in Golday is therefore following a well-worn path.

With a 9.85 RAS Score, Golday grades as an elite athlete. He’s 22.

The 2026 NFL Draft is a week away.