After Trey Lance goes to Dallas, could the Vikings trade for veteran QB in 2024?
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has potentially positioned the Vikings to be the destination for any quarterback looking a new start.
Minnesota already has the offensive weaponry to make any quarterback envious with Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, Jordan Addison and K.J. Osborn. Then there are the two highly rated tackles in Christian Darrisaw and Brian O'Neill.
Minnesota refusing to give Kirk Cousins anything beyond a one-year extension, in doing so opening up the position next year, leaves the Vikings and the NFL in an interesting place in the summer of 2024.
The Vikings have several options next offseason, so let's take a look at each one of them:
Trade for a veteran QB
San Francisco trading Trey Lance took the Marshall, Minnesota native out of the picture for 2023, at least. It also opened up another possibility in the veteran QB market for 2024: Dak Prescott.
The Cowboys are set for a $59 million cap hit in 2024 if they can't rework Prescott's contract. Trading for Lance may be a hedge against that, argued Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio Monday.
If Dallas isn't able to rework things with Dak and feel comfortable with what they have seen from Lance over the course of the 2023 season, then that leads to the possibility of the Cowboys looking for a trade partner for the 30-year old quarterback.
Let's also not rule out that the Vikings end up in the same rumors as this offseason, with the Cowboys trying to trade Trey Lance after working out a deal with Dak.
The Cardinals may also be looking to move on from a costly veteran quarterback this upcoming offseason.
Arizona are the betting favorites to be the worst team in the league this season, and are being heavily linked with quarterback prodigy Caleb Williams. On top of their own pick, which may end up being No. 1 overall, Arizona also own the Texans first-round pick in the 2024 draft.
If they take Williams, that means the Cardinals need to move on from Kyler Murray. The 26-year old quarterback tore his ACL at the end of the 2022 season and will miss a portion of the upcoming season. Murray's cap hit in 2024 is set to be $51.8 million, that's not a hit the Cardinals want on their books when they're trying to rebuild.
Minnesota will surely be thrown around quite a bit as a team interested in QBs with questionable contract situations next offseason.
But given the figures the likes of Prescott and Murray would expect, would the Vikings want to take on such a hefty contract given Jefferson, Darrisaw and Hockenson will be looking for extensions?
That could potentially lead to the Vikings opting for a less expensive veteran quarterback to use as a bridge to a young QB they draft.
The list isn't necessarily great, but QBs that are set to be free agents next year include Gardner Minshew, Colt McCoy, and Jacoby Brissett. Meanwhile, QBs who have 2024 voids on their current deals include Ryan Tannehill, Baker Mayfield, Jameis Winston, and Marcus Mariota.
Draft a QB
If the Vikings don't want to splash the cash on an established quarterback who will assuredly cost a lot of money, they could look to draft their quarterback of the future.
The Chiefs, Eagles and Bengals (to name just a few) have shown what can be built when teams are not investing $45-50 million per year in a quarterback.
It's not hard to see the Vikings trading away draft capital in order to move up to choose a highly rated quarterback in the 2024 draft, pairing a young QB with a roster ready to win and quarterback friendly coach.
The Vikings should end this season with a winning record, so they won't find themselves in the upper half of the first round unless they trade up.
They could potentially find themselves with a number of other teams for a QB, such as New England, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Washington, Green Bay, Tampa, Atlanta, San Francisco, and the LA Rams.
After clear-cut No. 1 Caleb Williams, the 2024 draft class has a number of quarterbacks who could be taken in the first round such as North Carolina's Drake Maye, Oregon's Bo Nix as well as Michael Penix Jr. out of Washington.
Re-sign Kirk Cousins
If the Vikings don't have the draft position they want to land their QB of the future, and
Finally, there's always a sliver of a chance Kwesi and O'Connell get enough success out of the 2023 Vikings and Kirk Cousins that they decide they can make it work for a couple more years and bring Cousins back.
It's a bit of a long shot at this point with how talks have gone, but if the Vikings are not keen on the idea of eating a $28 million dead cap hit in 2024 to move on from Kirk, the only option is to rework the 35-year old quarterback's deal.
An even longer shot is fifth-round pick Jaren Hall taking significant steps throughout the 2023 season and O'Connell feeling comfortable going forward with the 25-year old quarterback.
