Does the Minnesota Vikings QB talk make rational sense? Or is it reckless speculation?

"I don't think it's impossible to trade up from 23 where they are to a certain area of the draft, maybe the early teens."

Author:
Joe Nelson
Publish date:
Mar 24, 2023 12:39 PM EDT

Why has there been so much talk about the Minnesota Vikings and quarterbacks?

Daniel Jeremiah, one of the most respect draft analysts around, has the Vikings taking Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker with the 23rd pick in the draft. Other reports suggest Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell may be a fan of Kentucky's Will Levis. And ESPN's Jeremy Fowler created a firestorm last week when he suggested there are NFL executives who think Minnesota is a "wild card" landing spot for Lamar Jackson.

Slice it one way or another, the Vikings are constantly being connected to a future starting quarterback not named Kirk Cousins. So what's the real story?

"The mock drafters are putting 2 and 2 together here, where the Vikings restructured Kirk Cousins's contract and it appears there could be an end date on the Kirk Cousins era because they didn't extend him," says Matthew Coller of Purple Insider.

Cousins restructured his deal to save the Vikings about $16 million against the salary cap this season. He has no guarantees beyond this season, and the only guarantee the Vikings have is that they'll be slapped with a $28.5 million dead cap hit if Cousins isn't on the team in 2024.

The four quarterbacks most hyped in this year's draft class are Alabama's Bryce Young, Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, Florida's Anthony Richardson, and Levis. You'll be hard pressed to find any mock draft that has any of them not going in the first round, much less falling out of the top 10 in the draft. But recent history suggests the mock drafters aren't as locked in as previously thought.

"Last year, most of these same mock drafters had Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis being drafted as first-round picks and those guys ended up dropping to the third round. NFL teams do a pretty good job of never telling the outside world what is going on, leaving us all more or less guessing," Coller explained. "I wouldn't say that there's any specific insight that these mock drafters have other than to say it just naturally makes a lot of sense."

It's impossible to say a month and change ahead of the draft which of the hyped quarterbacks is most likely to slide in the first round, but Richardson being raw as a passer and Levis throwing 23 interceptions the past two seasons raise some red flags. However, if the mock drafters are correct, then the Vikings might have to trade up to get their guy.

"I don't think it's impossible to trade up from 23 where they are to a certain area of the draft, maybe the early teens. But if they're trying to go farther than that it would likely take multiple first-round picks, players involved and it would become very difficult and convoluted," said Coller. "But I think it's not impossible if one of these guys drops to the early to middle teens that the Vikings, if they really like them ... they could try to reach up and get someone."

If Minnesota doesn't want to reach and is comfortable drafting a 25-year-old recovering from an ACL tear, they could just sit back and wait for Hooker at 23. Hypothetically, Hooker would learn behind Cousins in 2023 and then be handed the starting job in 2024, when he's 26 years old.

"Hendon Hooker is a little bit of a different conversation because he's older and because he has an ACL injury. That's going to hurt his stock," said Coller. "Maybe, if they want to take him, they could wait until 23 if he's their guy, but more likely than not, it seems, from the top four potential picks, maybe Will Levis is the most likely to drop. I would not count this out at all and I think that the mock drafters at least have good reason to be mocking the Vikings a quarterback."