The Drake Maye Myth for Vikings Is Laid to Rest Again
If you think the Minnesota Vikings bungled a chance to obtain Drake Maye via trade in 2024, you’ve been fed false information. Former Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had a deal in place for Maye, but New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft backed out at the last second. And with the Super Bowl a few days away, and Maye front and center, SI.com‘s Albert Breer reconfirmed the situation this week.
Some folks’ revisionist timeline keeps resurfacing, but the Vikings’ 2024 draft position and New England’s leverage made Maye a nonstarter.
Vikings fans will continue to think “What could have been?” on Maye, but he just wasn’t for sale.
The Maye Narrative Keeps Getting Rewritten
The end-all of the Maye-to-Minnesota fodder.
Breer on Maye to MIN
Breer published an article this week about Sam Darnold’s rise to power in Seattle, outlining the takeaways from that voyage.
Tucked in the article, he scribed this tidbit, “There’s the one caveat to all of this, which is that the Vikings tried with all their might to trade up for Drake Maye in 2024. O’Connell loved him. Maye was coached in high school by Vikings assistant Josh McCown and was a teammate of McCown’s son.”
“Minnesota offered both of its first-round picks in 2024 (Nos. 11 and 23) and its 2025 first-rounder to the Patriots, with later-round pick swaps favoring Minnesota to move up to the third pick.”
Since the 2024 NFL Draft, some Vikings fans have lived in fantasyland, believing Minnesota simply backed out of the Maye trade — a false assertion.
Breer added, “O’Connell pushed them to go further. It wouldn’t matter, because the Patriots weren’t moving, sitting there as convicted in Maye as Minnesota was in the former North Carolina quarterback.”
“But if the Vikings had somehow gotten the Patriots off their spot with Maye, all of this might look different, and the aforementioned rumblings probably would have stopped.”
Of course, there is a seismic difference between “the Vikings got cold feet when trading for Maye” and “the Patriots declined to trade the pick.” For some reason, many prefer the revisionist history of the former, which makes the Vikings’ front office look wickedly dumb.
Surprise, Surprise: The Patriots Got It Right
The Patriots have won six Super Bowls. Here’s a newsflash: that didn’t happen by accident, and it wasn’t only because the franchise showcased Tom Brady and Bill Belichick for two decades. It’s because the masterclass starts from the top, with Kraft calling the shots.
And facing a decision to trade the third overall pick — basically Maye — to Minnesota or another suitor, Kraft could’ve easily pulled the lever to receive a king’s ransom deal. He had that option; the Vikings floated it, in fact. Kraft could’ve outfitted his roster with oodles of notable draft assets.
Yet, he recognized that Maye had the special sauce. For an organization that became mostly irrelevant after Brady left in 2020, Kraft needed a premier quarterback to end the doldrums. He stuck to his guns, declined Minnesota’s offer, and picked Maye.
He got it right not to sell; that’s what football icons do.
Maye in the Super Bowl; Vikings Pondering the 2026 QB1
Meanwhile, Maye is headed toward Super Bowl immortality — against Sam Darnold, “the other guy” the Vikings let walk. So, if you’re keeping score at home — you are — that’s two quarterbacks somewhat linked to Minnesota who will play in Super Bowl LX on Sunday.
What do the Vikings have lined up for QB1 in 2026? Nobody knows. They could roll with J.J. McCarthy, who struggled in 2025 and has missed 70% of all games in his career. They could trade for Kyler Murray. They could sign Malik Willis from free agency. They could sign a journeyman backup like Jimmy Garoppolo and call it good. Kirk Cousins might even be available next month.
The moral of the story? Adofo-Mensah was fired due to poor drafts and possibly a side dish of the Darnold gaffe — not because Robert Kraft declined a trade request.
Accumulating Blame on Adofo-Mensah after His Termination
Moreover, with Adofo-Mensah out of the way, there’s been a rush to assign everything bad that’s happened in the last four years to his name, with the temptation to pump O’Connell up as the maestro of the good.
That’s rather convenient and is probably unfair to Adofo-Mensah, who preached a collaborative approach with O’Connell from the day the two were announced as the new leaders in 2022.
O’Connell shares ownership of the McCarthy selection, and just because he wanted Maye — so did Adofo-Mensah — doesn’t mean that the Vikings are fools for not landing him two years ago. He wasn’t gettable. Breer’s reporting level-set history all over again.
You can’t buy something that’s not for sale.
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