How the Vikings Can “Lose” the 2025 NFL Draft
It would be kind of difficult to do, seeing as the Vikings have set themselves up so well over the course of the last two offseasons, but anything can happen in the NFL, and there is a reality where the Vikings “lose” in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Yes, the simplest way they lose is if they just take bad players. They very clearly “lost” in the 2022 NFL Draft, but it wasn’t just because they drafted bad players; it was because there were questionable moves made that led to them taking those bad players.
We don’t have to go over it all in-depth again since it’s been done to the point of exhaustion now, but punting on names like Jameson Williams, Kyle Hamilton, and Jordan Davis (just to name a few) in order to trade back in a time where you should be taking best players available is a losing strategy.
The Vikings Don’t Need to Trade Up the Board
Another losing strategy could be the Vikings performing another trade, but unlike the 2022 disaster, it would be a trade up the board. I’ve stated it in many pieces, but this draft class is very similar from the 10th pick to around the 55th pick, meaning for a team that doesn’t have many immediate needs like these Vikings, a trade-up is completely unwarranted.
The only way that there would be a justifiable trade-up is if someone like Ashton Jeanty slipped down the board to the late teens. A trade-up any higher for that for any less decorated or polished of a prospect could prove to be a huge mistake.
The Vikings simply can’t just keep sending future capital away. That’s not saying that the Dallas Turner trade-up in 2024 was a bad one, but it did cost a lot, and you should only perform that type of transaction so many times in the short span of a couple of years.
The Vikings may not have many pressing needs currently since they filled just about all of them in the free agency period in March, but all of the holes they filled, they filled with short-term replacements. Three of the big four signings of Allen, Hargrave, Kelly, and Fries are 30 years old or older, with Fries being just 27.
The holes aren’t really filled with concrete, but they’ll hold for a good two years. In order for them not to be needs again when the two years are up, the Vikings have to draft well now. That’s why if you’re confused as to why the Vikings are being so heavily mocked to draft DI Derrick Harmon when they just signed Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave, you shouldn’t be.
Vikings Must Formulate a Succession Plan for Current Roster
In the NFL, your process has to be a year or two ahead of where your roster currently stands, and while Minnesota does have a couple of younger guys on the team that are on the super cheap, the succession plan for the post-Allen and Hargrave era doesn’t currently lie in place.
You aren’t going to be able to develop that plan if you’re again sending off your future draft capital for instant gratification this year. There are very few scenarios where the Vikings trading up makes the slightest bit of sense, and even then, it’s a hard sell.
It sounds bold, but the Vikings trading their first-round selection this year exclusively for draft capital in the 2026 NFL Draft isn’t a terrible idea. Draft picks are always the most valuable they’ll ever be when that pick is on the clock. Minnesota could benefit from taking advantage of a team that’s desperate for talent now, and load up their draft class next year to really put that succession plan in place.
That plan is formulated even sooner if they use the picks they have this year, and don’t burn them trading up the board.
