It sounds like it, anyway

With the 2024 NFL Draft about two and a half months away, we’re starting to hear some rumors about teams that want to do various things, and the Minnesota Vikings are no exception. With Kirk Cousins’ contract status in limbo. . .and even if he comes back. . .the Vikings are going to be looking for a long-term quarterback at some point, and teams around the league apparently already know it.

Behind the great E$PN paywall, Jeremy Fowler has filed a report about what he heard when he was down in Alabama for the Senior Bowl this past week. One of his topics was which teams are potentially wanting to move up to draft a quarterback, and the Vikings have come up in league circles.

People around the league are keeping an eye on the Minnesota Vikings at No. 11, too. They did a lot of quarterback homework last offseason and could eventually target one high in the draft with free agent Kirk Cousins’ future in Minnesota uncertain. But moving from No. 11 into the top three would cost GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah a ton of draft capital.

The cost for the Vikings to move up from #11 into the top three. . .which, presumably, they’d have to do to get one of the consensus top prospects at the quarterback position in this draft. . .would cost them a bit. The most recent potential comparison comes from the 2021 NFL Draft, when the San Francisco 49ers made a deal with the Miami Dolphins to move up from #12 to #3.

The price for that deal for the Niners was the #12 pick in that 2021 Draft, a 2022 first-round pick, a 2022 third-round pick, and a 2023 first-round pick. I can’t imagine the teams in the top three asking for less than that to allow the Vikings to move up.

There’s one other slight problem. All three of the teams in the top three are in significant need at the quarterback position themselves. Two of them, the Washington Commanders and the New England Patriots, have new head coaches in the fold, and those coaches would presumably want “their guys” at the helm as they take over. The other one is the Chicago Bears, and if you think the Bears are going to trade the top overall pick in the draft to the Vikings then I’m not sure what to tell you other than “you’re wrong.” Another team might trade up with the Bears if they decide they want to ride with Justin Fields, but that pick isn’t coming to Minnesota.

Trading up in the NFL always sounds like a bold and sexy idea on the surface. However, it takes two interested parties to make it happen, and if those three teams are locked into taking quarterbacks with their picks there’s really nothing the Vikings can do about it. We’ll see if the purple can do something to change someone’s mind and make that move up, but at this point I’m not sure if I’d hold my breath about it happening.