What the Vikings Could Get for the 24th Pick in the 2025 NFL Draft
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, a numbers nerd, has several ways of quantifying what the No. 24 pick is worth. In fact, there are several trade value charts available to the general public that help to clarify something that’s actually quite murky.
Another way that we — and, more importantly, the Vikings — can assess what their most coveted pick is worth is to look to real-world scenarios. Put differently, consider past drafts and the teams that were in a similar range to where Minnesota finds itself. When a past team traded back, what kind of haul did they receive?
The Vikings & The 2025 NFL Draft:
The Worth of the No. 24 Pick in Two Examples
One need not travel too far to see a pertinent example. Just go over to Detroit and travel back to 2024.
During the 2024 NFL Draft, the Lions moved up to draft corner Terrion Arnold. Getting the No. 24 pick required Brad Holmes — a sensational GM who has proven to be an excellent drafter — to hand over No. 29 alongside No. 73, a 3rd-Round selection. Also going back in Detroit’s direction was a 2025 7th, a toss-in to help balance the trade a bit more.
Boil things down to just the simplest details. Last year, the Cowboys owned the Vikings’ precise pick: No. 24. They dropped down five spots, gaining No. 29 while picking up a 3rd-Round selection for their troubles. Not too shabby.
Conveniently, the No. 24 pick was traded away in the 2023 NFL Draft, as well.
In fact, the player to get scooped up in that draft spot was also a corner: Deonte Banks. Jacksonville originally sat in that draft slot, but they opted to do business with the New York Giants, dropping down to No. 25 in the process. The compensation involved gaining No. 160 (a 5th) and No. 240 (a 7th).
Now, you may be asking yourself why a team would trade down just a single slot. Good question. The likeliest scenario is one where a team lower than the Giants — the team that was originally sitting at 25th — was calling about prying away No. 24 from the Jaguars to draft Banks. Jacksonville, in turn, called New York to see if they would forfeit some draft picks for the assurance of jumping into the No. 24 spot and guaranteeing their chance of landing the coveted corner.
Something similar occurred during the 2024 NFL Draft with the Vikings and Jets. Sitting at No. 11, the Vikings handed over some picks to get into No. 10. In so doing, Minnesota ensured that Denver, the owner of the No. 12 pick, couldn’t leapfrog them to steal away their preferred passer.
At the end of the day, there’s no way to perfectly predict what kind of pick haul Kwesi Adofo-Mensah could demand for the 24th spot. The further a team moves back, the more that can be demanded. Plus, the specific player who is being targeted — a receiver, edge rusher, corner, or especially a quarterback — can prompt a team to surrender more draft capital than seems reasonable (see Turner, Dallas).
But while there’s some inevitable uncertainty as we look toward the future, the past two years have provided a pair of examples that help to guide our expectations.
In 2024, dropping back five draft spots meant gaining a 3rd, a reasonably valuable pick; in 2023, dropping down a single spot meant gaining a 5th and a 7th. Pretty tidy work, especially if the team still lands the player who was going to get scooped up all along.
The Vikings could always stick and pick, deciding that whoever is on the board is too good to pass up. Safe to say, though, that Adofo-Mensah won’t be shutting down any options in the lead up to the three-day event, instead waiting to see how things play out before deciding what to do with his most coveted asset in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and the NFL website 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 social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.