The prevailing thought over the past several weeks is the the Vikings have the best trade bait of the teams looking to move up in Thursday’s draft. With just over 48 hours until the draft kicks off, that thinking is taking a hit.
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini raised concerns over that perception on Tuesday’s The Athletic Football Show.
“I’m freaking out for Minnesota,” Russini said Tuesday. “The reason I’m freaking out for Minnesota is because I know how committed they are to getting a quarterback in this draft. They have made it very known they are trying to get a quarterback.”
“Does Minnesota have the most to give a team that’s willing to trade? Minnesota will tell you they do. Other teams trying to get up there tell me, ‘No, that’s not true,'” continued Russini. “Teams that don’t have that type of draft capital can figure out better and smarter ways and even more lucrative ways to move up. So when I started talking about Minnesota saying I’m very scared for them it’s because of this. This idea that there’s teams that don’t have this draft capital that believe they can get up to get their guy.”
With two first-round picks this year Minnesota holds the best draft capital among the teams looking to trade into the topfive. While two first-round picks this year is nice, Minnesota doesn’t have another pick until the fourth round. They do, however, have their first, second and third-round picks in 2025.
A scenario that has been speculated about by draft analysts over the past couple weeks is if Denver starts offering up players, knowing they can’t compete with the draft capital the Vikings hold. Several analysts have proposed the idea of Denver offering up star cornerback Patrick Surtain II as part of a package to move up from pick No. 12.
Surtain has turned into one of the better corners in the league, picking off seven passes over his first three seasons. Would the Vikings’ plethora of draft picks be enough to compete with being able to land one of the league’s best shutdown corners?
“You have Minnesota now, willing to make this trade. Willing to give up assets,” said Russini. “Are they willing to go as far and use all the assets?”
From what Russini is reporting it sounds like teams looking to move up with New England at No. 3 or Arizona at No. 4 are going to have to sell the farm to be able to do it.
“The sense I’m getting from around the league… is that it would take a king’s ransom to get New England to move off what they want to do, which is go quarterback,” she said, later adding that Arizona won’t trade until draft night and they are “not looking to move back” very far.
