Aren't you glad this didn't go down like this?

Yes. It's like getting Dallas Turner at #17 was a gift.

It really did work out great. Now we just need both those guys to pan out and we'll be sitting pretty.

Preserving that 2025 first round pick is huge. We'll see where it ends up, but even if we're picking early we have options. We can stick and pick if there is a player we love or we can trade back and supplement our lost draft capital.

MAD GAINZ wrote:
It really did work out great.  Now we just need both those guys to pan out and we'll be sitting pretty.

Preserving that 2025 first round pick is huge. We'll see where it ends up, but even if we're picking early we have options.  We can stick and pick if there is a player we love or we can trade back and supplement our lost draft capital.

I think that's part of reason they were so willing to give up those middle rounders. They knew they'd get at least one 3rd round comp pick, maybe others. Maybe a pick from the Falcons. Vikings will probably draft around the middle of the 1st and so adding a 2nd rounder is as simple as trading down 10 spots. Opportunities to recoup middle rounders are many. Opportunities to draft the best defensive player in the draft are not.

Trade back! Trade back?

6-7 wins means a top 10 draft pick - typically blue chip territory.

purplefaithful wrote:
Trade back! Trade back?

6-7 wins means a top 10 draft pick - typically blue chip territory.

Look, I love the optimism, but we're not going to be picking that high.

MaroonBells wrote:

Look, I love the optimism, but we're not going to be picking that high.

Lofl!

Here I thought I'd get nicked for being an eeyore...

purplefaithful wrote:
Trade back! Trade back?

6-7 wins means a top 10 draft pick - typically blue chip territory.

I'd put the odds right now (subject to change) at 70/30 we trade down next draft.  Buuuuuut, if we are picking top 10 and there is a player we love, then we should definitely stick and pick.  

Buuuuuuut if we're in the 11-16 range...  I think the talent will probably be similar for the positions we'd be looking at and the temptation of a trade down to acquire some extra draft capital will be high.  Heck, if we wanted to get crazy...  we could do what Kwesi should have done and trade way down to 28 or later and get a future first for 2026 to really load up some talent around McCarthy.

purplefaithful wrote:
I know we lost mid-rounders, but I'm still a bit giddy getting JJM + Turner and have 2025 #1 pick.

Am so glad this didnt actually happen:
====================================================

Charley Walters
April 20, 2024 at 10:15 p.m.

The way it looks now, as it has for months, the Minnesota Vikings will take quarterback J.J. McCarthy from national champion Michigan in Thursday’s NFL draft.

To get McCarthy, the Vikings will trade their Nos. 11 and 23 first-round picks to either the Arizona Cardinals, who have the No. 4 pick, or the Los Angeles Chargers, who have No. 5.

QBs Caleb Williams from Southern California, Jayden Daniels from LSU and Drake Maye from North Carolina are expected to go Nos. 1, 2 and 3, in order, to the Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders and New England Patriots.

The Cardinals or Chargers could also require the Vikings’ 2025 first-round pick in a move up for McCarthy. The Vikings would be reluctant because the 2025 pick is expected to be high in that the team seems destined for a last-place NFC North Division finish this year. 

The Vikings, if necessary, instead could try to include their 2026 first-rounder to get McCarthy.

I'm still in shock we were able to land both McCarthy AND Turner while retaining our 1st round pick next year. I would have to think the likelihood of this happening before the draft was probably somewhere around 2% to 3%, almost an impossibility. So taking nothing else out of it, that was a massive win. We needed QBOTF and an impact position player...check, check. I thought Turner was the best defender in the draft and McCarthy was the preference for us as maybe the highest upside quarterback in the draft. I just have a very difficult time seeing McCarthy not be successful. He is just wired right and built for this. Even as a young player, this stage is not going to be too big for him and I think it's a huge benefit for him being coached up by Harbaugh and now KOC.

supafreak84 wrote:
I'm still in shock we were able to land both McCarthy AND Turner while retaining our 1st round pick next year. I would have to think the likelihood of this happening before the draft was probably somewhere around 2% to 3%, almost an impossibility. So taking nothing else out of it, that was a massive win.

Wish I remembered where I read it, but some draft simulator had only a 3% chance just for Turner lasting to 17. Throw in McCarthy dropping to 10 and we might be under 1%.

RS_Express wrote:

Wish I remembered where I read it, but some draft simulator had only a 3% chance just for Turner lasting to 17. Throw in McCarthy dropping to 10 and we might be under 1%.

I was going to say 3% was generous. Probably .5% is more like it.

The fact that we are still rehashing this first round draft outcome weeks AFTER the draft tells me how transformative and important the hype and ballyhoo surrounding the annual NFL draft. Certainly the NFL and sports media have overhyped it to ad nauseum (another mock draft anyone?), but when things fall this way (or flail in ineptitude with the Vikings draft from two years ago), it helps fill that void for avid NFL fans from the Super Bowl til Training Camp...next step? Eliminate the third pre-season waste (game) and add an 18th game that matters, while bumping the roster to 55 (to allow for injuries).

Montana Tom wrote:
The fact that we are still rehashing this first round draft outcome weeks AFTER the draft tells me how transformative and important the hype and ballyhoo surrounding the annual NFL draft.  Certainly the NFL and sports media have overhyped it to ad nauseum (another mock draft anyone?), but when things fall this way (or flail in ineptitude with the Vikings draft from two years ago), it helps fill that void for avid NFL fans from the Super Bowl til Training Camp...next step?  Eliminate the third pre-season waste (game) and add an 18th game that matters, while bumping the roster to 55 (to allow for injuries).

QB and Edge; dont get much more important than that. 

For me, this is really the first big step in moving on from RS/MZ to KAM/KOC

Add to that, we're talking a rare pick in the top 10? And its not a surprise there is still buzz

That buzz will grow with all the camps coming-up and with the vets weighing-in. 

Only thing that will rival the rookie talk will be JJ extension (or lack of).