New Vikings Trade Rumor Is Just Fantastic
On Thursday night, the Minnesota Vikings kicked off their portion of the 2025 NFL Draft by selecting Donovan Jackson from Ohio State, an offensive guard to fill out a new and formidable fivesome in the trenches.
New Vikings Trade Rumor Is Just Fantastic
Fans mostly celebrated the pick as folks have asked for offensive line vitality since the early 2010s.
Now, however, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has just three picks remaining on Friday and Saturday, puny capital compared to other NFL franchises.
But thanks to NFL Network‘s Tom Pelissero, onlookers learned that the Vikings could trade up on Friday night — almost certainly using next year’s picks — to target a fancy rookie running back.
Tom Pelissero Suggests Vikings Draft Trade for RB
Pelissero joined KFAN’s Power Trip Morning Show and spilled the beans: “It’ll be interesting to see. They’ve not been shy in the past about potentially trading future assets to get additional picks now. And when you don’t have a pick until all the way down into the bottom of Round 3, that might become more acute of a need.”
“I do think that one position will be interesting to see, and I’m not saying they’ll do it, but there’s a huge clump of running backs. There’s a really deep running back group.”
The Vikings currently employ Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, Ty Chandler, and Zavier Scott at running back, but Chandler and Scott could be summer roster-cut candidates. A rookie would almost certainly knock Chandler off the depth chart or onto the practice squad. Scott is a practice squader as is.
Pelissero added, “There’s guys like TreVeyon Henderson, he’ll be gone early in Round 2. Quinshon Judkins, the other Ohio State running back. And then there’s probably like 20, 30 running backs that will come off the board sometime between rounds three and five.”
“We know they want to take some heat off of Aaron Jones in this offense. At what point, if at all, especially when you only have four picks, do you go and take a running back? That would not surprise me. If there’s somebody they really like the fit with, that could be a spot that they target.”
So, Who Are the RBs?
Talking about a would-be Vikings trade up the board for a tailback is code for three players:
- TreVeyon Henderson (Ohio State)
- Quinshon Judkins (Ohio State)
- Kaleb Johnson (Iowa)
Others, like Cam Skattebo, Dylan Sampson, or Damien Martinez, could be realistically obtained with the Vikings’ 97th pick.
Therefore, if Pelissero’s tea is accurate, it’s a Henderson, Judkins, and Johnson conversation.
Quinshon Judkins the Most Logical Target
Henderson may fly off the board Friday night in the first 10 picks, 33 to 42. A Vikings trade into that spot would be rather costly and could even involve a 2026 1st-Rounder. Most don’t believe Minnesota is willing to sell next year’s first.
Johnson isn’t quite as dynamic as Judkins, lacking Judkins’ speed, and may not be the type of player who a teams trade future assets. Johnson also isn’t a pass protector in the trenches.
And that leaves Judkins, who shone in the National Championship. He has perfect running back size at 6’0″ and 220 pounds. His 4.48 speed is also impressive.
NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein on Judkins: “Judkins is a productive runner possessing good size and great contact aggression. His running style is both urgent and a bit chaotic. He runs with good burst inside but is more collision-based than wiggle-oriented when maneuvering through the lane. He’s efficient on runs outside the tackle box, but he has a tough time outracing pursuit to create explosive runs.”
“He is wired and built for a heavier carry count and short-yardage success, but the disparity in yards per carry between Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, despite running behind the same line, is telling. Judkins might need to be paired with a slasher, but he has the ingredients needed to become a three-down RB1.”
Zierlein’s comp for Judkins? Joe Mixon.
How to Get Judkins via Trade?
Judkins lives at No. 54 on the Consensus Big Board. The Green Bay Packers own that pick, and if one rightfully assumes that Minnesota won’t do trade business with Green Bay, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are at No. 52
Here’s the kind of trade that would be necessary for that pick — to nab Judkins:
Vikings Get:
Pick No. 53 (Quinshon Judkins)
Pick 235 (Round 7)
Buccaneers Get:
Pick No. 97 (Round 3)
2026 2nd-Rounder
Expensive, yes — but that’s the name of the game when trading the following year’s draft picks. Price gouging.
Waiting Until Round 5 for RB?
Otherwise, if Pelissero is wrong or Minnesota decides it can’t afford a spendy trade with next year’s picks, these running backs could be options in Round 5:
- Brashard Smith (SMU)
- Jordan James (Oregon)
- Ollie Gordon II (Oklahoma State)
- Trevor Etienne (Georgia)
A Slam Dunk Offseason at RB
Vikings fans are already over the moon that the club landed Jordan Mason for a low-risk, affordable trade in March. Adofo-Mensah shipped the pick he received in the Ed Ingram trade with Houston to San Francisco for Mason.
If Minnesota wants to fix its ground game once and for all, fully enabling quarterback J.J. McCarthy to succeed, spending next year’s capital on Henderson or Judkins might be worth it.
Aaron Jones will turn 31 in December, and Mason has never handled a full season’s RB1 workload.
Judkins, especially, checks some boxes.
The Ohio State Connect
Then, the Vikings would reunite Judkins with Donovan Jackson, who Minnesota drafted on Thursday night. The top of the Vikings’ draft would be an all Ohio State National Championship Team everything.
ESPN Trashes Vikings’ Draft Pick
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