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Latest Vikings Draft Buzz: Trading Up, Patriots, Cardinals, Bo Nix
Checking in on some recent smoke surrounding the Vikings and the NFL Draft.
The NFL Draft is just two days away, folks. After months of endless rumors and speculation, we're about to learn which quarterback the Vikings select in the first round. And with that, a new era in Minnesota will officially be underway.
But before we can get to Thursday evening, we still have to wade into the waters of internet "buzz" a couple more times. Let's check in on some of the latest steam surrounding the Vikings and the draft.
Patriots staying at 3?
There have been plenty of rumblings that the Vikings are big fans of Drake Maye, who has prodigious arm talent and a pre-existing relationship with Minnesota's quarterbacks coach, Josh McCown. In order to get him, they'd probably have to work out a deal with the Patriots and move up to the No. 3 overall pick. The issue is that doing so is seemingly going to cost an arm and a leg.
The Patriots, by all accounts, are listening to offers for their pick, but are holding out for an "unprecedented deal" to convince them to trade down. Their talent-depleted roster could use the haul that would come from moving back, but they also need a quarterback and could simply stay at 3 and take Maye (or J.J. McCarthy) if they don't get a huge offer.
"According to one source, the Patriots have fielded calls and trade offers for their first-round pick," reported Mark Daniels and Karen Guregian of MassLive. "However, the source indicated that those offers were ‘laughable’ and not close to getting the Patriots to move down. As of now, the team is still waiting for a ‘serious’ offer."
So it sounds like the Patriots are playing hardball here in negotiations with the Vikings and other teams who could be interested in moving up to 3 (the Giants, Broncos, and Raiders, perhaps). Negotiations will undoubtedly continue up until Thursday evening. The question the Vikings are weighing is how badly they want Maye — compared to the plausible alternative of trading less for McCarthy.
"I’d still say the likelihood is New England doesn’t move the pick, and selects a quarterback," reports SI's Albert Breer.
What about the Cardinals at 4?
If the Patriots do stay put at 3 and take Maye, the Vikings' focus might turn to the Cardinals, who own the No. 4 pick. Getting up to 4 would be the safest way to ensure that McCarthy ends up in Minnesota.
"The Arizona Cardinals, sitting in a catbird seat at with the fourth pick, have told teams that have called (and as we said Monday, four teams have at least checked in with Arizona on moving up) that they don’t plan to execute a trade until they’re on the clock during the 8 p.m. ET hour Thursday," Breer wrote. "And that’s if they move it at all — teams that have talked to Arizona GM Monti Ossenfort believe it’ll be pricey to make a deal, which could be a sign he has a guy he likes (Marvin Harrison Jr.?)."
It's been speculated that the Vikings would need to give up picks 11 and 23 this year, their 2025 first-rounder, and then some to get up to 3. The price to get up to 4 might not be quite that high, but it's certainly possible Arizona will hold out for the inclusion of next year's first along with the two firsts this year from Minnesota. If that's the case, the Vikings would probably decline and let the Cardinals take Harrison if they want. The risk there is that the Giants could conceivably trade up from 6 to 4 and take McCarthy, which would leave the Vikings to settle for Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix as QB5.
This is just my gut feeling, but the most likely outcome seems to be the Patriots taking Maye, the Cardinals taking Harrison, and the Vikings trading up to the Chargers' No. 5 pick to land McCarthy without giving up next year's first.
Vikings like Nix?
There's been growing smoke that all six of these quarterbacks could be taken as high as the top half of the first round. It'll be fascinating to see if that turns out to be true, or if the Penix/Nix talk ends up similarly to buzz about Malik Willis, Desmond Ridder, Will Levis, and Hendon Hooker going quite high over the last couple years before they eventually fell into Day 2.
If the Vikings somehow strike out on the top four quarterbacks, they'll be an obvious candidate to take Penix or Nix as high as No. 11 overall.
"A very well-connected league source told Yahoo Sports they firmly believe that if the Patriots take Maye, the Vikings are comfortable standing down in trade talks and using one of their two first-round picks — either No. 11 or No. 23 — to select Oregon quarterback Bo Nix," reports Charles Robinson. "It’s worth noting here that Nix had a private workout for the Vikings earlier this month."
Robinson notes that the Cardinals might be asking the Vikings to give up a king's ransom to move up to 4, and that it's possible Arizona would be more comfortable moving back to 6 to stay in range for Harrison or Malik Nabers.
To be clear, the Vikings have had private workouts with every top-six quarterback outside of Caleb Williams, so Nix is far from unique in that aspect. But this is interesting nonetheless. In a world where Maye goes 3 to the Patriots and the Giants trade up to 4 for McCarthy, the Vikings could be left to take Nix somewhere in the 11-32 range and hope he's good enough to thrive in what is an ideal landing spot for any quarterback.
Two. More. Days.
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