Why the Vikings Shouldn’t Draft a WR in the First Round
The Vikings will be on the clock at 24th overall in the 2025 NFL Draft at some point in the later hours of the night of April 24th, and the direction they will go with this selection remains unclear.
Minnesota still has “needs” at some positions that they addressed during free agency. On the defensive interior, Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave are short-term fixes for an ages-long problem in Vikings lore. Likewise, the story is the exact same on the opposite side of the trenches with Ryan Kelly and Will Fries, both formerly of the Indianapolis Colts.
Vikings Have More Pressing Roster Needs
Forget ages-long problems; how about generations-long? Franchise-history-long? The Vikings may have added Isaiah Rodgers and can look forward to a returning Mekhi Blackmon after a torn ACL that kept him out for all of 2024, but to no one’s surprise, the football team that plays at U.S. Bank Stadium needs a cornerback. Drink.
Do they need to spend premium draft capital on a running back? No, not exactly. Of course, Minnesota needs a long-term answer for the position for when the Aaron Jones era comes to an end sooner rather than later, but if we’re talking about this year, the class is a deep one when it comes to that position, and the Vikings may even believe they have the future of their running back room with Jordan Mason, whom they acquired earlier this offseason via trade with the San Francisco 49ers.
What they don’t need to do is spend high draft capital on the position that they are theoretically positioned best at in the long-term at wide receiver. Is it crazy to want to maximize J.J. McCarthy, especially while on his rookie deal? Obviously not, but the kid is already walking into potentially the best position a first-year starter has ever walked into in the history of American Football.
Vikings Already Have a Full (and Expensive) House of Weaponry
Justin Jefferson is currently the best wide receiver known to mankind, and his direct deposits are very handsome. As long as the off-the-field antics with Jordan Addison die down, he will also be getting a large payday in a couple of seasons. T.J. Hockenson is making $17 million a year (in fairness, the Vikings are at the point in Hockenson’s contract where they can manipulate to not be much of a hit), and the Vikings think very highly of Aaron Jones, who has a fine running-mate in Jordan Mason.
You want the Vikings to spend a first-round selection on what would be the 5th or 6th option in the short-term and the 4th option, at best, long-term? If Hockenson or Addison are vanishing from existence sometime soon, then maybe I’ll listen to the argument, but I don’t have much evidence to suggest that either of those staples of the Minnesotan offense will be leaving anytime soon.
Vikings Must Address Long-Term Holes
It just doesn’t make a ton of sense; Minnesota filled some holes well in free agency, but they didn’t fill them with concrete – they filled them with nicely packed dirt. That’s obviously not to say they were wrong in signing who they did. They did a marvelous job by getting some elite talent to plug holes, but they’re short-term fixes, and they’re fixes who have all dealt with injury concerns very recently.
If the Vikings don’t trade back in the first round, then the 24th overall selection must be spent on a corner, a defensive interior lineman, or an offensive interior lineman. They could even draft safety and it would be understandable, but they seem to think quite highly of Theo Jackson, just as they did with Josh Metellus a couple of years ago, and they were validated in their beliefs from that time.
Jordan Mason Brings What the Vikings Have Been Missing at RB