Kwesi Cooks in the Vikings 2024 Draft
Vikings Territory Breakdown Podcast
Vikings fans anticipating the high stakes in their team’s 2024 NFL Draft were rewarded with an unexpected dose of trade excitement on Day 1. General manager Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah did get his quarterback to replace (eventually) the departed Kirk Cousins and followed it up with a highly-touted edge rusher to replace Danielle Hunter, who’s “Gone to Texas.” He did not achieve this first-round booty without expending several draft picks, but he did it without sacrificing any future number one picks. Vikings fans can decide whether it was too much capital or that the picks were worth the deals.
The Vikings traded up from their 11th overall spot with the New York Jets to position themselves at number 10 and select Michigan signal caller J.J. McCarthy. They gave up picks 129 and 157 (and got a sixth, number 203, in return) to move up one spot, but when you saw Denver select QB Bo Nix a couple picks later, the Vikings appeared wise to make the move when they did. For his money, McCarthy couldn’t have been happier, telling everyone who would listen before the draft that he wanted to be a Minnesota Viking. It remains to be seen in years hence if the Vikings got their man (as rumors circulated that they offered a boatload to trade up to number 3 to get QB Drake Maye).
No too long later, the Vikings’ 23rd overall slot turned into the 17th pick in the first round (after giving up several more later round picks) and turned into Alabama edge rusher Dallas Turner, who many experts had going inside the top 10. But a heavy emphasis on offense by teams picking in the first round prompted Kwesi to shoot for the moon and make the deal to acquire Turner. His subsequent quote explaining that sometimes an analytics guy has to put away the charts and take a risk on a player they feel can impact their team was a refreshing balm to those fans who feel that analytics people are occasionally too bound by their numbers.
The Vikings added five more players on Day 3 of the draft, starting with a Khyree Jackson, a tall and quick corner from Oregon. But the biggest news is that Vikings got their QBOTF in the first round, so a new era has begun in Minnesota. (Of course just so everything didn’t go down without a dash of draft-day controversy, the Vikings selected a kicker with a sixth-round pick.) So, join the fellas at the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast (Joe Oberle, senior writer at vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com and Mark Craig, NFL and Vikings writer for the Star Tribune and startribune.com) to break the whole Purple draft down.