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As the Vikings navigated free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft, bringing in players from the pro and college ranks, we’ve taken a deeper look at newcomers’ games — the ways they’ve stood out; why their fit with Minnesota makes sense; and what was said about them in early evaluations, and more recently. We previously studied free-agent signings Kyler Murray, James Pierre and Jauan Jennings. Now, the club’s Top 5 draft picks: Caleb Banks, Jake Golday, Domonique Orange, Caleb Tiernan and Jakobe Thomas. These features are intended to present the skills and backgrounds of players new to the Vikings fan base.
After re-sizing its defensive line with Caleb Banks in the first round two months ago, Minnesota selected in Round 3 (82nd overall) a double-team-defiant defensive lineman out of Iowa State named Domonique Orange, who is beloved, already, by the football community because of his purple-licious — er, pulp-a-licious — nickname. “Big Citrus” is a wide body (6-foot-2 3/8 and 322 pounds) sculpted in the image of football gods to fulfill a three-fold purpose at minimum: set the line of scrimmage, hinder inside runs and stall blockers from climbing to the second level so that linebackers can reap rewards from his works.
Although Orange’s production on the Cyclones peaked two years ago — 24 tackles, including 4.5 for losses and a sack — his role was largest in 2025 when he averaged 45.6 snaps per game on defense and was an All-Big 12 Third-Team honoree. In his final college hurrah, Orange lined up as a nose tackle on 412 of 547 snaps (75.3 percent), according to Pro Football Focus. He wasn’t as one-dimensional, if you will, in 2024 when he put his finger in the dirt directly across the center on 47.7% of his snaps. His usage last season, however, mirrored his sophomore year and first in the starting mix when he played 81% of his snaps over the nose. For what it’s worth, Orange’s top season statistically (2024) featured an average tackle depth of 1.3 yards, per PFF, which tied for 44th nationally among interior d-linemen (min. 150 run defense snaps) and was equivalent to 2025 first-rounder Walter Nolen and edged out 2025 first-rounder Derrick Harmon (1.4). While that stat contains variables, it’s a snapshot indicator of Orange’s knockback.
Trivial as it may be, Orange is the first player drafted 82nd overall by the Vikings. He’s also just the fifth player added through the annual event out of the 134-year-old program in not-so-far-away Ames, Iowa. The most notable of course is Vikings Ring of Honor linebacker Matt Blair, who was the 51st pick in 1974.
View photos of Iowa State DL Domonique Orange who was selected No. 82 overall in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
A cutup of some of Orange’s best plays reveals a wish list of crossed off traits for a d-line centerpiece: leverage, lateral agility and B.G.O. (ball get-off) — how quickly a player kicks up turf pellets (or loose dirt) out of his stance in relation to the snap — to name a few. One aspect of Orange’s success is his leverage. He drops his weight with the best of ’em. Another is his lateral agility. Orange moves side-to-side surprisingly well for someone of his stature, which enables him to engulf multiple gaps and flow to the football with a degree of deception. The catalyst of it all is his B.G.O. Orange’s college résumé was short on gaudy numbers, in part, because offenses had to account for him owning his domain on every snap. Otherwise, his swiftness off the rock and sheer size would crumble their designs before they transpired.
For overwhelming evidence of Orange’s skill set, we’ve broken down several reps from a pair of 2025 contests. One is the rivalry game played for the Cy-Hawk Trophy in which Orange stood firm against Iowa center Logan Jones, whom Chicago drafted 57th overall. The other is Iowa State’s slim loss to Arizona State; Orange posted his best PFF run-defense grade from 2024-25 in that game (77.3) and had his hands full trying to slow Jeff Sims, who achieved a Sun Devils record by a quarterback with 228 rushing yards.
If you’ll tolerate our play on words here. Obviously, it’s hard to miss Orange. However, it’s harder to move him. His flashes Sept. 6 against the Hawkeyes were of the sweetest variety; he split double teams, stoned Jones and threw him off his trajectory like a ragdoll, and covered terrain laterally with fast tempo. Orange anchored an Iowa State run defense that permitted 3.4 yards per carry on 39 rushes — and it’s not as if Iowa aired it out, either. Quarterback Mark Gronowski averaged 3.5 yards on 13-for-24 passing.
Orange’s highlights in his team’s 16-13 win were exhaustive, so why not examine the mode in which he started. On the first snap from scrimmage, the nation’s top center zipped a shotgun snap to Gronowski and hurtled into Orange — he didn’t budge. Keeping his hat lower than Jones, Orange flexed his muscle and walked the First-Team All-American back a few steps, peeked into the backfield to identify a handoff to Terrell Washington, Jr., and then swooped up the running back with his right arm as Jones persisted in trying to block him. Practically sliced in half, Orange made the tackle after a hectic knee-driving gain of 1.
Probably never viewed as “too small” to do something (Orange apparently tipped the scales at 300 pounds as a freshman in high school), it’s natural to wonder if Orange has ever been declared “too big.” Like, too big to beat everyone off the ball. If so, the former 400(!!!)-pounder has proved people wrong.
There were snaps against Iowa and Arizona State where Orange paced his teammates off the ball, exploding into contact with fire ants in his pants. His burst was apparent and important versus the run, but we noticed it on passes, too. Specifically, a first-and-10 dropback during an ASU 2-minute drill near the end of the first half on Nov. 1, and a third-and-5 empty look for Iowa early in the second quarter.
The former play involved Orange and Cyclones on both sides of him stunting left immediately after the snap to lure blockers away from a double linebacker blitz off the right edge (left side of the o-line). The action didn’t fool the Sun Devils, who kept a RB in for protection and held a 6-on-5 numbers advantage, but Orange still affected Sims on his release, getting intimate enough with the quarterback’s sightline to cause an errant pass that flew well outside of his targeted receiver running a comeback along the right sideline. Orange’s rush path pitted him against ASU’s right guard; he relied on the momentum generated by his first step to slip past him and scare Sims into an inaccurate delivery. Sims fumbled on the very next snap, and then Iowa State capitalized on fabulous field possession with a TD one minute before halftime.
