Exploring the Vikings’ 2024 Draft Strategy with an Assist from Our Old Friend…Jerry Jones?
K. Joudry
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When Vikings fans think back to the 2022 NFL Draft, there’s widespread disappointment about how the event unfolded. Lingering alongside Minnesota’s draft failure, though, was an odd moment from Jerry Jones.
Does that moment help to clarify the Vikings’ 2024 draft strategy?
Back in 2022, Jones sunk Dallas’ 24th pick into offensive lineman Tyler Smith. The owner/GM then felt compelled to prove to the media that Dallas genuinely had the lineman sitting at a certain spot in their evaluation. Doing so involved Jones revealing the team’s official draft board that had been condensed down to a concise document.
The Vikings’ 2024 Draft Strategy and The Jerry Jones Draft Board
Assembling a draft board is an inherently hierarchical exercise. The odd Cowboys moment simply reconfirmed that basic truth.
A piece on Sports Illustrated discussed the situation, noting that Dallas had assigned a set number of 1st-round grades, as the sheet confirmed: “the Cowboys told the truth about having ’14 first-round grades’ on prospects” (bold in the original). In other words, Dallas went into the 2022 NFL Draft with 14 players perched above all others.
Go ahead and relive the odd moment from Jones:
No doubt, this will go down as one of the stranger moments in NFL draft history. Can we glean anything that will help us to understand what’s going on in Minnesota?
Of course, the recent chatter has mostly been in response to the blockbuster trade that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah pulled off less than two weeks ago. The reigning theory is that the Vikings’ GM is going to put the picks together to go snag a highly-regarded passer. Is that the only option, though?
Envision a scenario where Minnesota has been hard at work studying the incoming batch of rookies. Did the Vikings get this work (mostly) under their belt and determine there are somewhere around 20-25 players who are good enough to demand a 1st-round grade? If so, was there then a desire to ensure Minnesota gives itself a near guarantee at picking two players within that talent tier?
It’s at least somewhat notable that Minnesota has done tremendously well in the early 20s in recent years. Justin Jefferson got picked 22nd overall in 2020, Christian Darrisaw got picked 23rd overall in 2021, and Jordan Addison got picked 23rd overall in 2023. One wonders if that incredible run of success played into the desire to snag the Texans’ 23rd pick.
More compelling than that recent history, though, could be an evaluation of the draft’s various prospects and a belief about where there’s a significant talent drop off.
Very likely, the Vikings want one of this year’s best passers. Owning a couple 1st-round draft picks going into the event is therefore a nice spot to be. However, Minnesota’s GM understands that the NFL is an unpredictable place; quite often, the NFL Draft is when the unpredictability comes to the fore.
The moment with Jerry Jones and his top 14 reminds us that teams go into a draft with talent hierarchies and use that belief about where players are slotted to guide their decision making. Quite possibly, the Vikings think that there’s a cluster of players within that top 25 who sit a bit above the rest of the competition.
If the opportunity arises, Minnesota will almost certainly hop up for their quarterback. If, however, the plan falls through, then Minnesota is well-positioned to bring in a pair of excellent players from the initial 23 guys.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.