Vikings’ 2026 Draft Strategy Could Be Changing Drastically
Despite the Minnesota Vikings’ hot conclusion to the 2025 regular season, they are no longer in playoff contention.
Minnesota has won four straight games, but they sit at 8-8 and may be bound to finish in eighth place in the NFC — one spot short of a playoff appearance.
As a result, the winning streak is a bit bittersweet to end the year. Yes, the Vikings are making strides towards improvement that can be built upon in 2026, but they are also hurting their position in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Vikings’ 2026 Draft Position
Following the conclusion of the Christmas Day slate, the Vikings now sit with an even 8-8 record on the season after starting the year 4-8. During that time, there were calls to part ways with everyone from GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
While the waters may be cooling on that front, the questions are just beginning in terms of what the Vikings will do in this spring’s draft. With that fourth straight win, the Vikings have dropped all the way down to the No. 17 pick after discussions of a potential top-10 pick just a few weeks ago.
As a result, there is a chance that the Vikings will be forced to pivot from what many draft analysts have predicted for Minnesota over the past couple of months. Names like RB Jeremiyah Love and S Caleb Downs have frequently been thrown the Vikings’ way, but that was when they had the luxury of a top-end draft pick.
That will no longer be the case, and given the talent of those two players combined with the lack of QB depth at the top of this draft class, it seems unlikely that Minnesota will be able to snatch either one of them.
For instance, just a few days ago, Pro Football Focus’ Gordon McGuinness put out a mock draft that had the Vikings missing out on both of these players. Downs landed at No. 10 with the New York Giants while Love landed with the Kansas City Chiefs (may the football gods help us all if this scenario plays out in reality) at No. 12. Both players gone well above the Vikings’ pick, and that was before Minnesota’s latest win as they picked at 15th overall in McGuinness’ mock draft.
With both of those names off the board, McGuinness had the Vikings selecting CB Jermod McCoy out of Tennessee. McCoy very well could turn into a solid NFL player, but there are a couple concerns.
For one, he spent the entire 2025 season on the sidelines because of a torn ACL. As a result of that injury, he will enter the NFL having only one true season as a starter for a defense at the college level.
Granted, just because the Vikings are losing a couple spots in the draft doesn’t mean this success down the stretch necessarily is a bad thing. Minnesota has found ways to win games with J.J. McCarthy at the quarterback position, which was the entire goal of this year.
That being said, with the number of needs this roster could have heading into the 2026 offseason and limited salary cap space, it will be very interesting to see how the Vikings navigate this spring’s draft without a premium top-end draft pick like many assumed they would have no more than four weeks ago.
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