It’s NFL Draft Week—The Offseason Super Bowl
Vikings Territory Breakdown
The first-ever Vikings draft pick (No. 1 overall) took place in 1961 and was Tommy Mason, a running back from Tulane, who had a nice career. In six seasons with the Vikings, he rushed for 3,252 yards, scored 28 touchdowns, and garnered the nickname Touchdown Tommy. Two picks later (29th overall), they selected Georgia QB “Scramblin’” Fran Tarkenton, who was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This year, the Vikings select 24th overall in the first round, and Purple Nation is hoping for similar production out of their pick.
But the NFL Draft is a crapshoot. A first overall pick can get the call from the Hall (Peyton Manning, 1998) or flame out in epic fashion (JaMarcus Russell, 2007). Then again, Tom Brady can go in the sixth round and become the best QB ever to play, or Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant in 2022, can take a team to the Super Bowl and have folk rethinking that moniker for the last person taken in the draft.
The bottomline, to reiterate, it’s a crapshoot, and as we approach the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday, the Minnesota Vikings are in no position to crap out. General manager Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah, with his penchant for making draft day trades, has an uneven record at best in his first three drafts. He has done very well in backfilling his roster in free agency and during the season, but as a result, his team was the oldest in the league in 2024, and while his offseason moves were very good in 2025, the team did not get appreciably younger. It needs to do so.
Unfortunately, the team (thanks to some of that in-season backfilling) only has four picks (plus a compensatory pick) in the upcoming draft. And that tells this observer that Kwesi is already working the phones to try to find more picks in this draft. The Vikings have some holes to fill, despite a decent foray into free agency, and the overall need to get younger has to be utmost in the GM’s mind. Therefore, it is on our minds, that being the minds of the fellas at Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast—Joe Oberle, senior writer at vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com, and Mark Craig, NFL and Vikings writer for the Star Tribune and startribune.com. So, tune in and check it out. Skol!
The Vikings Should Stick and Pick at No. 24