The Vikings Are in Love with a QB … Or a Couple
Dustin Baker
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If you believe the Minnesota Vikings will roll with newcomer quarterback Sam Darnold in 2024 and call it good, it’s time to revise the theory.
The Vikings Are in Love with a QB … Or a Couple
Darnold temporarily replaced Kirk Cousins on the depth chart this spring, but the NFL draft is two weeks from today, and most expect Minnesota to select a quarterback as Cousins’ replacement.
And according to the team’s boss, the Vikings love multiple quarterbacks in this deep class. “When you go back to the team element and value, I think there’s multiple guys that we are in love with just on an outright basis. But there’s other guys we’re in love with given what, if we get them at a certain value, what they’d also be able to come with,” he told the media about his staff’s quarterback scouting.
Adofo-Mensah positioned Minnesota to move up the draftboard when he pulled off a splashy trade one month ago, grabbing an additional 1st-Round pick from the Houston Texans while offloading two 2nd-Rounders in the deal, plus a late-round pick swap.
With any luck, he’ll trade once again with a team like the Washington Commanders (Pick No. 2), the New England Patriots (Pick No. 3), the Arizona Cardinals (Pick No. 4), or the Los Angeles Chargers (Pick No. 5).
Caleb Williams (USC), Drake Maye (North Carolina), Jayden Daniels (LSU), Michael Penix Jr. (Washington), J.J. McCarthy (Michigan), and Bo Nix (Oregon) are expected to go off the board in Rounds 1 and 2. If Minnesota prefers Daniels, Maye, or McCarthy — Williams is effectively spoken for by the Chicago Bears — a trade may be mandatory.
“So, as I talked about earlier, skill-set-wise, if you’re talking about the ability to overcome context — well, if the guy has less ability but we have assets to go get somebody who is not going to put him in that situation, those things add up, too,” Adofo-Mensah mentioned about more than one quarterback on his club’s radar.
Since the trade with Houston on March 15th, Vikings fans have decided the eventual quarterback pick is a binary choice between Maye and McCarthy — and for good reason. Oddsmakers predict one of those two will end up in Minnesota, with McCarthy situated at +105 odds, and Maye at +350.
Meanwhile, Daniels is expected to be chosen by the Commanders at No. 2, and if the purple team wants Penix Jr. or Nix, well, it can probably wait until the 11th or 23rd pick to pull the trigger sans any trade.
Adofo-Mensah also said about the risk of trading up the board, “Just because something is risky doesn’t mean you have to stay away from it. It’s something that is hard to grasp, but if you grasp it, you know what the rewards are, right?”
Minnesota hasn’t used Round 1 or 2 capital on a quarterback since Teddy Bridgewater — a decade ago.
Vikings Big Trade Called a Coin Flip
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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