The Plot Thickens for the Vikings and Their 2025 Compensatory Picks
Josh Frey
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It’s certainly been a momentous offseason for the Minnesota Vikings.
The franchise drafted their QB of the future and found a potential star edge rusher to become a cornerstone on defense. It would seem like these would be the forefront topics heading into the summer, but no, discussions have instead focused on compensatory picks for 2025.
And now, the plot may have thickened even further.
The Comp Pick Plot Thickens for Vikings
It all began when Nick Korte of Over the Cap wrote up his projections for the 2025 comp picks. In those projections, Korte had the Vikings receiving the top comp pick because of Kirk Cousins’ departure, but to the chagrin of some fans, that is the only pick on the docket according to OTC’s projections.
Korte wrote, “The Vikings were expected to possibly see two players, Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter, leave the team for top tier deals elsewhere, and that is what happened. The Vikings also lost several other CFAs, but were also aggressive in signing CFAs of their own to offset some of those departures. Nonetheless, they had at least balanced this to where the 3rd rounders for both Cousins and Hunter leaving were on the board…until they signed Shaquill Griffin to a one year, $4.55 million contract, leaving the Vikings with a net loss of only 1 CFA, giving the formula no choice but to cancel out Hunter’s contract with Griffin’s.”
Some have run with the idea that the Vikings are missing out on an additional comp pick solely due to the Griffin signing earlier this spring. In reality, if the Vikings are going to go into 2025 without a second comp pick, it will be due to the culmination of all of Minnesota’s signings this spring to replace the departing veterans. To Korte’s credit, he also clarified as such:
However, Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune floated out a theory that the Vikings still could get an additional compensatory pick next spring. Goessling told KFAN, “I was told yesterday that Shaq Griffin did not cost them. I mean, this idea that Shaq Griffin directly cost them a third-round pick, I was told this is not true. I don’t think it’s quite that simple. I don’t know that they’re going to end up with two of them at this point, but I was told by people in the know that this is not the case.”
The compensatory pick system is notoriously complicated in the NFL, and it is something that is always evolving. Perhaps this is another case in which Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is working with different information that is not known to the public.
At any rate, it feels very unlikely that Adofo-Mensah, a former Wall Street guru, simply misread a spreadsheet when going about signing free agents to contracts. Either the Vikings GM knows something that we don’t, or the signing of Griffin to add veteran depth to the secondary was intentional.
Griffin’s role in 2024 very well could prove to be more valuable than a comp pick in 2025, anyway. The Vikings had a need for more veterans in their secondary and filled that need with the former Houston Texan.
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Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.