VIKINGS DRAFT SHOWS THEY ARE BUILDING FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE
Written by Tony Schultz on May 8, 2024
In sports there is always the desire to “win now”. Every owner, team, coach, and player wants to win every game. With the current salaries in the NFL teams must plan for the future instead as they battle keeping their payroll below the salary cap. You will see some teams spend as much as they can if they feel they are close to putting a Super Bowl caliber team on the field. Eventually that can come crashing down and set a team back several years if their plans don’t work out. Mixing the smaller contracts of newly drafted players with established players on the roster that are in need of a raise with free agent acquisitions that will immediately help win games is a delicate balance. General managers spread money out over years to lessen annual impact and use loopholes to push money to future years when the player might not even be on the team. Eventually they have to pay the piper. The Minnesota Vikings have been pretty deft at maneuvering around the salary cap while drafting great players over the years. In the third year of GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensa and head coach Kevin O’Connell they cut money, signed free agents, and drafted to win again in the next year or so. While there are players they drafted to help right away they also looked to the future success of the team. I interviewed Dustin Baker with Vikings Territory and got his thoughts on the players acquired.
A few weeks ago the Vikings came into the draft looking to get a new quarterback after Kirk Cousins took a big money deal from the Atlanta Falcons. It was really no secret. The thought was they would have a shot at two quarterbacks: Drake Maye or JJ McCarthy. Maye ended up going to the Patriots at the 3rd pick. Minnesota reportedly tried to trade up to get Maye, but the Patriots wouldn’t budge feeling they weren’t getting the “bag” they felt they should get as compensation. Then Minnesota chose to play the waiting game and let McCarthy fall to them near the 11th pick. They traded up one spot to 10 to secure him as the Broncos and Raiders were trying to jump ahead of them. The compensation was much less then if they had gone up to the 3rd pick and they got a quarterback that most feel can develop into a real star if coached correctly. The Vikings also had the 23rd pick that they got in a trade with the Texans which they traded with Jacksonville to get up to 17 to draft Dallas Turner who was viewed as one of the best defensive players in the draft. This move was surprising, but had merit since the Vikings also lost Danielle Hunter the long time pass rusher in free agency. Due to the trade they had made they didn’t get to select again until Saturday in the 4th round of the draft picking up Kyree Jackson, a defensive back from Oregon. They followed that up by selecting offensive linemen Walter Rouse and Michael Jurgens, defensive lineman Levi Drake Rodriguez, and kicker Will Reichard. Other than Turner, who could start day one and Reichard, who should win the kicking job the others will be backup players or developed to become future rotational players or maybe even starters. McCarthy being the most important of those. He will most likely sit on the bench while free agent QB Sam Darnold, signed to a one year contract starts this season.
What does this all mean for the Vikings now? You might have to consider this year a slight rebuilding year. Darnold hasn’t had a great career since being drafted 3rd overall by the Jets a few years ago, but his stints there and with the Panthers have been marred by poor coaching and organizations in a bit of a lurch. If he flourishes then you can say it was his surroundings that caused his struggles. However, if he stays true to his recent performances playing here will prove that he isn’t a good player and the team may suffer to another losing record. He will have an offense full of weapons with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hockenson, Josh Oliver, Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill. Add in newly signed running back Aaron Jones and it’s a comfy place for ANY QB to be. Defensively they bulked up the pass rush with Johnathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel while adding linebacker Blake Cashman to solidify defensive coach Brian Flores defense. Adding Dallas Turner just takes that side of the ball up a notch and adds depth at least. This helps to take pressure off the offense as well as they don’t have to be solely responsible to win games. If Darnold struggles then McCarthy could be thrust into the starting position sooner than the coaches and even the fans want him to. It would benefit the young QB to sit a year and absorb the NFL vibe before being put in tough situations too early. This has worked well for Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and Jordan Love. This is why Vikings fans will have to be patient.
What fans may have to look forward to is the 2025 season for all of this to come together. Next year any of the money left from Kirk Cousins last contract drops off the books and that puts the Vikings in the enviable position of having a lot of cash to spend on free agents to supplement holes they can’t fill in the draft. It may be over $100 million in cap space even with having to sign Justin Jefferson to a new mega contract. For the coming season fans will have to accept the fact that the team might not be good enough to reach the playoffs or that even if JJ plays well in preseason that he may sit on the bench so as to not get overwhelmed. With the new talent we should see improvement on both sides of the ball next year, but the quarterback position remains the most important and if there are struggles there you can expect the team to feel them as well. Just look at last season when Cousins went down with a season ending injury. There was a carousel of players with none of them skilled enough to put them over the hump. McCarthy, however could be that player if he’s thrust into the starter’s job. He is very mature and poised for his age and played in a pro style offense at Michigan where he helped lead the team to the National Championship win. If he can start and play well in the next year or two this will help the team as he will be playing on a rookie contract and that will keep the salary cap from inflating too much and they can bring in weapons around him. Patience will be the key with the Vikings as they do a minor reset.
I think the Vikings did the right thing and not getting Drake Maye could have been the best thing for the team. They still got a young quarterback with tremendous upside and they didn’t have to trade away the 23rd pick and drafted a great defensive player. They also retained next year’s 1st round pick that will be detrimental in continuing to build the team around their young quarterback of the future. Sure, a lot of things have to go right for this all to work, but with some time and a little luck the Vikings could finally have that franchise quarterback they’ve been trying to lock down for decades.
KQ98 Live