Very Quietly, The Vikings May Have Wrestled Away an Asset from the NFL
To be sure, we’re not talking about franchise-altering stuff, but a positive development nonetheless.
The Vikings may have gained an extra compensatory selection. For a little while, Nick Korte of Over the Cap was showing just a 3rd and 5th for Minnesota due to the departures of Sam Darnold and Cam Robinson (the QB has been in the news lately). A fresh look at the chart Korte provides involves seeing a 7th tossed into the mix.
The Vikings May Have Gained a New Pick
For a season, Trent Sherfield Jr. was a solid depth receiver for the Vikings.
The physical pass catcher was in town to block defensive backs, not lead the team in catches and yards. After a season with 8 catches, 83 yards, and 1 touchdown — alongside nice blocks aplenty — Mr. Sherfield agreed to become a Bronco. He put pen to paper on a contract that’s sitting at two years and $6 million.
No, not huge money in the world of the NFL, but it could be large enough to generate a late 7th in 2026.
Korte has reflected on the adjustments to his analysis of comp picks on social media. He writes, “I was curious as to why all of the sudden players like Tremon Smith and Tre’Davious White and Trent Sherfield were now making the cut for 2026 compensatory pick qualification. It’s because all the June 1 cuts got cleared out. There’s a bug in the program I’ll need to fix later.”
Further: “It’s been an utter mess of a logjam as to which of the ~$3M APY players could qualify as 2026 compensatory free agents. There will be high variance in the number of outcomes that could happen with the comp picks for this next draft.”
Readers will be forgiven if they’re not perfectly tracking. The NFL’s compensatory formula is a very complex, so much so that NFL teams sometimes get their projections wrong.
As a result, there’s a key word in the title that’s doing a lot of heavy lifting: “may.” There’s a reasonable degree of certainty about the top pair of comp picks for the Vikings since Darnold and Robinson signed for so much money. Sherfield, though, is playing a low/medium deal, leading to the uncertainty that Korte references.
We should note, however, that Kevin O’Connell previously mentioned the possibility of seeing a trio of compensatory picks, so we’re talking about something that has been on Minnesota’s radar.
O’Connell mentioned there being potential for “three […] high-level comp picks,” an outcome that doesn’t appear possible. Instead, the Vikings may get a pair of strong comp picks alongside a late one. The 7th isn’t world changing, but it’s an extra asset. The GM (and HC) will gladly accept it.
Past Vikings to have been picked in the 7th who have gone on to have reasonably productive careers include (but are not limited to) Kris Boyd, Bisi Johnson, Ifeadi Odenigbo, Jayron Kearse, and Jamarca Sanford.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and Bluesky (@VikingsGazette). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.
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