After months – and perhaps years – of speculation, the future of the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback position will be decided on Thursday night. With a rich class of quarterbacks and two first-round draft picks, several insiders believe there’s a good chance Minnesota will trade up for its signal-caller of the future in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft but the question is how they will get there and who they will select.
The Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling hints that all signs point to “a big move” up the draft board as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell enter the third year of four-year contracts they signed upon their arrival in 2022.
While Goessling speculated they could continue to look for short-term solutions such as Sam Darnold to maintain a high level of play at the quarterback position, he also noted that it might not be wise to do that during the prime years of Justin Jefferson’s career.
“Even after 20 wins and an NFC North title in their first two years, they know they’ll be measured on what they do at the [quarterback] position,” Goessling wrote. “It’s unlikely they’ll want to wait until Year 4 together to acquire a young QB and the 2025 quarterback draft class might not have as many prospects as this one is believed to have. All signs point to a QB, and possibly to a big move up the draft to take one.”
Goessling also noted that the Vikings have watched North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye for over a year and Minnesota quarterbacks coach Josh McCown coached Maye at Myers Park High School in Charlotte.
But while Maye feels like Minnesota’s top target, there’s also the chance they could trade up for Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy threw for 2,991 yards, 22 touchdowns and four interceptions during his final year but he led the Wolverines to a national championship and lost just one game in two seasons as a starter.
That resume has the Pioneer Press’s Charley Walters speculating the Vikings could make McCarthy their top target on Thursday night.
“The way it looks now, as it has for months, the Vikings will take J.J. McCarthy from national champion Michigan in Thursday’s NFL Draft,” Walters wrote on Saturday. “…It’s becoming clear that general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, in his third year with the Vikings doesn’t have the power within the organization that his predecessor, Rick Spielman had. Passing on a top quarterback on Thursday could end up costing his job.”
McCarthy’s case is also dependent on how the top three picks play out. The Chicago Bears are expected to take Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft and Jayden Daniels, who the Vikings met with in Baton Rouge last week, is expected to go second overall to the Washington Commanders.
That leaves the New England Patriots as a potential trade-up partner if they want to build their infrastructure around a new rookie quarterback. While Eliot Wolf declared that the Patriots were “open for business” last week, he also added the team would feel comfortable taking a quarterback.
If that’s not a smoke screen to drive up the cost of a trade, the Vikings could eye McCarthy with a trade with the Arizona Cardinals for the fourth overall pick or the Los Angeles Chargers for the fifth overall pick.
While other options such as Oregon’s Bo Nix or Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. are in play, NFL Mock Draft Database’s consensus mock draft lists the Vikings taking McCarthy at pick No. 11. But even that is a conservative account as the Denver Broncos (No. 12), Las Vegas Raiders (No. 13) and even the New York Giants (No. 6) could trade up to get a quarterback.
It all adds up to what could be one of the most important drafts for the Vikings in franchise history and a massive payoff on Thursday night.
