Vikings Don't Have Many Draft Picks Remaining in 2024 and 2025

Vikings Don't Have Many Draft Picks Remaining in 2024 and 2025

Dec 24, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah / Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

During the first round of this year's draft on Thursday night, the Vikings traded up twice to land a pair of players who they believe will be cornerstone pieces of their future. They moved up from 11 to 10 to make sure they got Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy amidst an unprecedented run that saw six quarterbacks taken in the top 12 picks. Then, with premium defensive players falling because the first 14 selections were all on offense, the Vikings moved up from 23 to 17 to get Alabama edge rusher Dallas Turner, who was one of the highest-graded defenders on their board.

In doing so, the Vikings swung for the fences on a pair of blue-chip prospects who have a chance to become stars in Minnesota. They're banking on McCarthy and Turner panning out, especially because they surrendered quite a bit of draft capital to acquire them. Going up one spot for McCarthy cost them a fourth-round pick and a fifth-rounder this year, although they did get a sixth-rounder back. Moving up for Turner cost a whole lot more. Factoring in the March trade that got the Vikings the 23rd overall pick, they gave up their second, third, and fourth-round picks in 2025, plus a fifth-rounder and a late-round pick swap this year, to go up from 42 to 17. That's a very steep price for a non-quarterback.

The analytics charts, predictably, say the Vikings did quite poorly with the two trades that resulted in the 17th pick. To be fair, the trade to get pick 23, which the Vikings said was to give them more flexibility, might've been intended to result in a trade up for a quarterback. That didn't work out, but it was a sunk cost when the team was making its decisions on Thursday. This move by the Vikings was about being aggressive to go get an impact player who they thought would be drafted much higher, regardless of the capital it took to make it happen.

"Obviously, I'm a spreadsheet and calculator guy myself, but sometimes you’ve gotta step out from there, take your Clark Kent glasses off, and just have a championship mindset and swing for a great player," GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said.

After round one, here are the Vikings' current picks in the 2024 and 2025 drafts.

2024

Round 1, Pick 10: J.J. McCarthy

Round 1, Pick 17: Dallas Turner

Round 4, Pick 108

Round 6, Pick 177

Round 6, Pick 203

Round 7, Pick 230

Round 7, Pick 232

2025

Round 1

Round 5

Round 5

The Vikings are also projected to get a third-round compensatory pick for losing Kirk Cousins in free agency. They were projected to get another third-round comp pick for Danielle Hunter until they signed Shaq Griffin, canceling out that pick in the formula.

It's also worth noting that the Vikings are currently projected by Spotrac to have $104 million in cap space in 2025, which is fifth-most in the league. Even if an extension for Justin Jefferson eats into that number, the Vikings will have a lot of room to add impact players in free agency around their rookie-contract quarterback.

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