Could the Minnesota Vikings have three third-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft? It certainly appears to be a possibility thanks to compensatory picks they may be receiving after Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter and K.J. Osborn signed with new teams as free agents.
“I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at least one third and then some other ones,” Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said on KFAN radio Monday morning.
Right now, it appears that the Vikings will receive 2025 third-round picks because they have lost six players from last year’s roster who are considered “compensatory free agents” (CFAs) while only signing four compensatory free agents.
Over The Cap explains it like this: “In plain English, if a team loses more players that qualify as CFAs than it signs during free agency, that team is eligible to be awarded compensatory picks in the following NFL draft.”
Minnesota has lost six CFAs: Cousins (Falcons), Hunter (Texans), Osborn (Patriots), D.J. Wonnum (Panthers), Marcus Davenport (Lions) and Jordan Hicks (Brown). The CFAs they’ve signed are Jonathan Bullard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman and Sam Darnold.
There’s an entire formula to determine what round a team’s compensatory picks are in and it’s based on some complicated math that accounts contracts and performance. In the case of Cousins and Hunter, they in the elite level of both and therefore the Vikings are expected to receive third-round picks.
That would Minnesota three third-rounders in 2025, including their own pick.
They could receive more compensatory picks if more CFAs sign deals for at least $3 million annually, though any additional CFAs the Vikings sign could serve as an equalizer and eliminate compensatory pick supplementation.
Regardless, it now appears that the Vikings are armed with five picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft.
