The Minnesota Vikings are in the market for a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft but an insider with ties to the New England Patriots believes the first four picks might not go the way everyone thinks on Thursday night.
Ben Volin of the Boston Globe dropped a notebook with his thoughts leading up to the draft and the most notable for Vikings fans is that he believes Minnesota likes Drake Maye more than the Patriots do.
“If the Patriots were truly sold on Maye, they wouldn’t consider trading their No. 3 pick,” Volin wrote. “My hunch is that the Vikings want Maye more based on the fact that Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown knows Maye well, having coached Maye in 2019 at Myers Park High in Charlotte, N.C. where McCown’s two sons also played.”
While Volin believes the Vikings are indeed interested in Maye he also thinks there’s still a chance the Patriots could select the North Carolina quarterback with the third overall pick, forcing the Vikings to select J.J. McCarthy.
Volin’s intel lines up with New England Director of Scouting Eliot Wolf’s declaration that the Patriots are “open for business” with the third overall pick but are also comfortable taking a quarterback with that selection if they can’t work out a trade. But it doesn’t mean that they would have to trade up to the fourth overall pick to get their quarterback.
Volin also believes that the quarterbacks in the draft could be overhyped and that the idea that Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Maye and McCarthy could go in the first four picks is a smokescreen.
“While Caleb Williams is definitely going No. 1, and the Commanders are definitely taking a quarterback at No. 2 (likely Jayden Daniels), there is hardly a guarantee that Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy go third and fourth,” Volin wrote. “Maye might go No. 3 to New England, but in that case, I highly doubt that McCarthy would go No. 4. The Cardinals already have two first-round picks and need an elite receiver way more than they need a trade down for more picks.”
Volin noted that most quarterbacks get hyped in the pre-draft process but fall in the actual draft. Will Levis is one notable example after he fell to the 33rd overall pick after being projected as a top pick in last year’s draft.
“This year, there’s a realistic scenario where the third quarterback (likely Maye) doesn’t go until No. 5, and the next one (McCarthy) goes somewhere around the 10th pick,” Volin said. “I then expect Bo Nix to be drafted somewhere in the teens, and Michael Penix somewhere in the late-first or early-second round.”
Volin went on to list that the Los Angeles Chargers could be a trade partner with the fifth overall pick and the Vikings No. 11 and No. 23 picks “might be enough to get it done.”
