Vikings Projected to Receive Three More Compensatory Picks in 2021 Draft
The Vikings are heading into the 2020 NFL Draft with a whopping 12 selections, which will be crucial in reloading and filling roster holes with young players on rookie contracts. The reloading effort will continue next year, as the Vikings are projected to have a similarly large stable of picks in 2021.
Nick Korte predicts compensatory picks for OverTheCap.com, and he currently has the Vikings slated to receive three of them for a third straight year in 2021.
The headliner is a projected third-round pick coming in for Trae Waynes, who signed a deal worth $14 million annually with the Bengals this offseason. Waynes is currently sitting on the right side of the border between a third and fourth-round compensatory pick, but not by much. The Vikings got some surprising good news when they received a 2020 third-round pick for the departure of Sheldon Richardson instead of a fourth-rounder as projected, and they'll be hoping Waynes ends up landing them a third-rounder as well.
Additionally, the Vikings are projected to get a sixth-round compensatory pick for the loss of Mackensie Alexander and a seventh-rounder for Andrew Sendejo. They would have been projected to receive a sixth-rounder for Stephen Weatherly, but that was cancelled out by the acquisition of Michael Pierce. As a reminder, there are only 32 compensatory picks awarded each year.
The compensatory pick cancellation chart will change as remaining free agents continue to sign with new teams during the rest of this offseason, but that's where the Vikings currently stand. When factoring in the 2021 fourth-rounder they picked up in the Stefon Diggs trade, here's what their picks in next year's draft could look like:
- 1st round pick
- 2nd round pick
- 3rd round pick
- 3rd round pick (compensatory, Waynes)
- 4th round pick
- 4th round pick (acquired from BUF in Diggs trade)
- 5th round pick
- 6th round pick
- 6th round pick (compensatory, Alexander)
- 7th round pick (compensatory, Sendejo)
It's unclear if the Vikings still have their own seventh-round pick, which was sent as a conditional pick to the Chiefs for cornerback Mark Fields. But regardless, they're already at ten more picks in 2021, including six in the first four rounds. When pairing that with double-digit picks this year, the Vikings should have a strong wave of talent coming in over the next couple seasons, provided Rick Spielman has successful drafts.
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