The Vikings Tried But Stood with Sensibility
Ted Schwerzler
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It was expected that the Minnesota Vikings would attempt to move up in the draft from the moment they acquired a second first-round pick. Ultimately, they wound up drafting J.J. McCarthy one spot ahead of their 11th overall pick, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t try to move into the top three.
The Vikings Tried But Stood with Sensibility
Drake Maye is seen as a special talent, and while the Minnesota Vikings had plenty of connections to taking him, there was almost never a scenario in which his selection would have been a sure thing. Development was going to need to take place for any of the top quarterbacks in this class, and that meant that general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah needed to have a level of sensibility when mortgaging the future.
Given the needs both Washington and New England had at picks two and three, namely that each needed a quarterback of their own, it was always going to take a gargantuan offer for the Vikings to position themselves there. It sounds as though they swung for the fences, but they stopped short of putting themselves in a bad way.
Handing over three first-round picks to draft Maye would have hurt, but doing even more than that would have been nothing short of lunacy. The Vikings had alternative options at the quarterback position, and paying a king’s ransom solely to connect Maye and Josh McCown once again wasn’t necessary.
In the end, the Vikings wound up with a solid rookie prospect in J.J. McCarthy. They grabbed him with the 10th overall pick and didn’t need to part with any of their first-round selections to do so.
There are certainly questions about how his skill set will translate at the next level, given that the Michigan offense was especially run-heavy, but Kevin O’Connell now gets his first shot at developing a franchise quarterback.
McCarthy will be given time to sit behind Sam Darnold, at least starting the year, and the Vikings don’t have to put their new rookie into the fire immediately. McCarthy enters a better situation than any other drafted quarterback is walking into, and the Vikings’ offensive playmakers stand to go a long way toward making him successful.
Ted Schwerzler is a blogger from the Twin Cities that is focused on all things Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. He’s active on Twitter and writes weekly for Twins Daily. As a former college athlete and avid sports fan, covering our pro teams with a passion has always seemed like such a natural outlet.
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