There’s a Vikings Trade-Down Idea for the Draft
The Vikings will be on the clock in the 2025 NFL Draft in less than a month, and the speculations around what they and all of the other teams around the NFL will do in the trade market are coming fast and furious.
It hasn’t been made any clearer what the Vikings will do with their 24th overall selection, as they are in a position to go ahead and just take the best player available since they used free agency to fill needs. However, they are also in a spot that they could trade down, and they wouldn’t be missing out on much.
There have been some rumblings about this draft class, such that there isn’t much of a difference between the player taken 20th and the player taken 50th, which could stop teams from wanting to trade up as much as they would in recent years.
Brandon Beane Wants Business With The Vikings (Again)
In a recent CBS Sports piece, though, the Buffalo Bills came calling.
CBS Sports NFL draft editor Kyle Stackhouse proposed a trade between Buffalo and Minnesota that saw the Bills receiving the 24th overall pick while providing the Vikings with picks 30 and 104.
Stackhouse proposed this with the idea of the Buffalo Bills drafting safety Nick Emmamwori out of South Carolina. Emmamwori displayed freaky athleticism at the NFL Combine, running a 4.38sec 40-yard dash while standing at 6’3 and weighing 220lbs. Stackhouse then went on and had the Vikings drafting North Dakota State guard Greg Zabel, assumingly plugging into the left guard position after Minnesota just spent big money on former Indianapolis Colts Ryan Kelly and Will Fries.
He also mentioned that this would be right in line with the Bills’ habits regarding the first round of the draft in recent years.
The Bills have traded up in the first round in four of the last six drafts, and they do so again here, adding a Swiss Army knife to their defense in Nick Emmanwori.
He also elaborated on the Vikings selection of NDSU guard Greg Zabel:
The Vikings need help along the offensive line, and Grey Zabel has played a bunch of different positions in his career. It would be a good problem to have for Minnesota, which could draft him and then figure out his best spot afterwards.
The Vikings Don’t Need To Draft a Guard
As we know, the Vikings really don’t need to draft an offensive lineman at all in this draft. Not only considering the signings of Kelly and Fries but also because they took multiple project prospects last year in Walter Rouse and Michael Jurgens, and left guard Blake Brandel was fine and even good when Christian Darrisaw was on the field in 2024.
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Minnesota would be more likely to select a defensive player in that spot, as they’d have plenty of defensive backs to choose from. A couple of Xavier Watts, Shavon Revel Jr., Benjamin Morrison, Trey Amos, Malaki Starks, and Maxwell Hairston would likely be available at 30th overall, and Minnesota might even like Texas CB Jahdae Barron enough to stick and pick him at 24th overall.
