If the Minnesota Vikings are going to take a quarterback in the first round of the NFL Draft, ESPN’s Mina Kimes believes they should go all in.
During a Friday appearance on NFL Live, Kimes called the Vikings one of the most fascinating teams in this year’s draft due to their quarterback situation. With Kirk Cousins entering the final year of his contract and no extension imminent, draft analysts have started to link the Vikings with a quarterback with the 23rd overall pick.
Go big or go home https://t.co/njbJPLX1GC
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) April 14, 2023
“We’re going to learn a lot about them with what they decide to do with pick No. 23,” Kimes said. “If it’s not a quarterback, that might actually suggest a willingness to have Cousins return but I suspect they’re willing to move on.”
Kimes noted that some mock drafts have been linking Minnesota to Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker. But Kimes also pointed out that if the Vikings want to take a quarterback, they should move up in the draft to take Florida’s Anthony Richardson.
“My feeling is that if you’re Minnesota and you’re willing to allocate a first-round pick to Hooker, that means it’s over with Cousins because it’s a first-round pick,” Kimes said. “I think if you’re willing to do that, you should really consider just trading up for [Richardson].”
Richardson is one of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s draft and according to the NFL Mock Draft Database’s consensus board he is expected to go fourth overall to the Indianapolis Colts. With only five picks in this year’s draft, making a deal to move up would be difficult, but Kimes reasons it could be worth it.
“My feeling is that taking a quarterback late in the first round is kind of like betting half of your savings on an investment that’s not likely to return very much.” Kimes said. “You might as well just go all in.”
To Kimes’s point, the recent history of first-round quarterbacks selected outside of the top 20 hasn’t led to franchise signal callers.
Since the NFL went to 32 first-round picks in 2002, only Rex Grossman (2003), Aaron Rodgers (2005), Jason Campbell (2005), Teddy Bridgewater (2014) and Lamar Jackson (2018) have spent more than one season as a starter after being selected between picks No. 20 and 32.
To go deeper, only Rodgers, Bridgewater and Jackson have made a Pro Bowl after being selected late in the first round.
With the 25-year-old Hooker coming off a torn ACL and likely needing a year to learn behind Cousins, it could make more sense for the Vikings to take the 21-year-old Richardson, who also needs time to develop but holds more potential.
“There’s obviously a little bit of risk in that,” Kimes said. “But I personally think [Richardson] would be worth that level of risk.”
