Amidst quarterback rumors, an insider sheds light on the Vikings’ pre-draft trade.
After obtaining a second first-round pick from the Houston Texans, the Minnesota Vikings are primed to climb significantly into the top half of the 2024 contest. However, it’s unknown how high they can go.
Additionally, they have demonstrated differing degrees of interest in the top QB prospects in the entering class.
But according to ESPN NFL analyst Adam Schefter, that interest might stem from their newly acquired wealth of first-round draft cash rather than the other way around.
“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.”
With Kirk Cousins leaving in free agency for the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings have needed a QB. 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 may out to be an excessive expense. The future of Caleb Williams, the Chicago Bears’ expected first-round selection, is still up in the air.
The Vikings were given choices by the Texans deal, if nothing else. Should one of their top-ranked quarterback prospects falter, they have the means to make a move, use the second of those first-round picks as a de facto second-round pick, or build around Darnold. On April 3, Houston acquired Diggs from the Buffalo Bills in exchange for a 2025 second-round pick and this year’s sixth-round pick (No. 189).
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.
