Report: Vikings wanted to trade up and draft Bryce Young
The quarterback the Minnesota Vikings wanted in the NFL Draft was Bryce Young, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.
The Minnesotan who works for NFL Network broke the news Tuesday during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, saying most rumors about the Vikings and quarterbacks going into the draft were "just completely wrong," but the idea that they could trade up into the top five was very real.
"They were making calls about moving up very high in the draft. My understanding is that was for one player and that was for Bryce Young, who ended up going No. 1. And so there went any possibility for Minnesota to go get him. They knew he wasn't going to be a Minnesota Viking, so the focus really turned toward getting another weapon for the offense in the draft," he said.
As for Kirk Cousins's future in Minnesota, the ball is still up in the air.
"With Cousins, there were contract talks about an extension. It's just, last year Kirk Cousins signed a one-year extension which gave the Vikings flexibility to do exactly what they did, which was explore their options, decide that Kirk Cousins right now is their best option and roll with him in 2023. So Kirk was never going to take another short-term type of deal, another one-year extension. It just didn't make a lot of sense," said Pelissero.
Meanwhile, Pelissero said the Vikings have no real sense of urgency to make decisions on Danielle Hunter, Za'Darius Smith and Dalvin Cook. He said he thinks Smith ultimately "ends of playing some place else," but the Vikings won't just cut him or give him up easily in a trade.
He said "ideally a contract extension" will develop for Hunter, while Cook's future remains unknown just as it has for a couple of months.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.