Getty General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (L) and Head coach Kevin O'Connell of the Minnesota Vikings.
The Minnesota Vikings are positioned to make a sizeable jump into the top portion of the 2024 draft after securing an additional first-round pick from the Houston Texans. How high they can get remains unclear, though.
They have shown varying levels of interest in the top QB prospects of the incoming class too.
However, that interest could be a result of their newfound wealth of first-round draft capital rather than the other way around according to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter.
“A couple of weeks back the Houston Texans went to the Minnesota Vikings and initiated a trade in which they got out of the first round, got an extra second-round pick, and they got an extra 2 in that deal in as well in 2025,” Schefter said on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on April 3. “Well lo and behold, everybody assumed that that trade was the Vikings initiating it so that they could go up and get a quarterback.
“The truth of the matter was it was the Texans who initiated that to get out of the first round to get added draft capital in the second round the next two years so that they could go be in position to make a trade like the one that they did on Wednesday acquiring Stefon Diggs at what many people are surprised by the price in the end.”
Diggs Trade! t.co/6cuSO8KqtI
With Kirk Cousins leaving in free agency for the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings have needed a QB.
Sam Darnold, Draft Picks Give Vikings Options in 2024 Draft
GettySam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings.
Sam Darnold signed a one-year, $10 million contract in free agency. He has support around the league and from Head Coach Kevin O’Connell.
But the Vikings continue to explore the top quarterback prospects in the draft. That could signal their willingness to make an aggressive trade to secure one. So even if they were fortunate the Texans contacted them, there is a chance they were eyeing a trade anyway.
Some projected they could trade first-round picks up to three years out to get a deal done.
That could prove too steep a cost. There remains uncertainty around the prospects after Caleb Williams, the presumed No. 1 overall pick to the Chicago Bears.
If nothing else, the trade with the Texans gave the Vikings options. They have ammunition to pull the trigger on a potential trade should one of their top-rated QB prospects slide, they can utilize the second of those first-rounders as a de facto second-rounder, or build around Darnold.
Vikings’ Return in Stefon Diggs Trade Stands Out
GettyStefon Diggs #1 of the Houston Texans.
Houston acquired Diggs from the Buffalo Bills on April 3 for a sixth-round pick this year (No. 189) and essentially a 2025 second-round pick swap.
That is a deep discount on what the Bills surrendered to the Vikings for Diggs in 2020. Buffalo sent three picks in 2020 (Nos. 22, 155, and 201) and a 2021 fourth-round pick to the Vikings in that deal.
The Vikings used the earliest pick to select his replacement, Justin Jefferson.
Jefferson is the only piece of that trade still with the team. But that is still a far greater value than the Bills extracted in their deal with the Texans.