Vikings Have a “Very High” Chance to Scoop Up More Draft Picks Due to Next Week’s Business
K. Joudry
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Since taking over as the Vikings’ GM in January of 2022, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has been hard of work shedding bloated salaries while welcoming in plenty of youth. His opening pair of drafts led to sixteen selections and he’s currently carrying nine into the 2024 event, so the potential is there to climb up to a cool twenty-five picks by the time May arrives.
Look ahead a year and the Vikings have a great chance of gaining even more draft picks.
Minnesota is moving into free agency with plenty of uncertainty, which naturally lends itself to being among the teams capable of scooping up compensatory selections. On Over the Cap, Nick Korte offers a rundown of NFL teams’ potential to be awarded compensatory picks in 2025. He suggests that the Vikings have a “Very High” chance of being awarded some more draft capital.
Vikings Have a “Very High” Chance to Gain More Picks
As of right now, Adofo-Mensah is sitting on seven selections for 2025.
Things are looking pretty standard with one pick per round. The lone exception arrives among the Day 3 selections. There’s no 6th but there are a pair of 5ths. Upgrading on that pick was part of the Za’Darius Smith trade from last offseason. And, for whatever it’s worth, the 7th that Minnesota owns is originally from Pittsburgh (courtesy of the Jesse Davis trade).
No doubt: the GM is covetous of more selections. Seven is a pretty good spot to be but he’ll always welcome more.
Take a look at how OTC frames things when it comes to the likelihood of snagging some more draft picks: “Kirk Cousins will lead the way with a 3rd round CFA contract if he leaves Minnesota. Right behind him will be Danielle Hunter coming off another double digit sack season. Dalton Risner, KJ Osborn, DJ Wonnum, and Marcus Davenport are other Vikings from 2023 that could see good contracts elsewhere if not retained. Suffice to say, the Vikings will be poised very well to make their 2025 draft slate abundant if they so choose.”
Add it all together and Korte thinks there’s a “Very High” chance Adofo-Mensah gets to bring in more players from the 2025 NFL Draft. In fact, there are only a pair of teams — the Vikings and Ravens — to get the designation. Every other team is working from “High” to “Very Low.”
Standing in the way of the prophecy is the potential to jump into a super aggressive free agency period. After all, there’s no shortage of talent that’s soon to become available.
Yesterday, PurplePTSD offered “The Minnesota Vikings’ Free Agency Board: 25 FA Fits, Possibilities, & Options.” Not every player is on the same level as the (potentially) departing Kirk Cousins or Danielle Hunter, but there are definitely some high-priced players whom Minnesota would be interested in signing. Bringing in a well-paid player offsets the departure of one, so this is something to monitor. Simply losing Hunter doesn’t mean the Vikings are a 100% guarantee to snag another pick.
If, however, the NFL’s enigmatic comp pick calculations proceed in the expected manner, Minnesota will be able to toss another pick or two into Kwesi’s war chest. Adofo-Mensah could then, in turn, leverage those as more firepower to pull off a trade. Or maybe the GM holds onto them, using them in the most obvious manner by scooping another youngster out of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Free agency begins on March 11th with legal tampering.
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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.