Head coach Kevin O'Connell and the Minnesota Vikings are currently in the process of searching for their franchise quarterback of the future after previous starter Kirk Cousins shockingly departed the organization this past offseason and took his talents south to join forces with the Atlanta Falcons. Of course, Cousins missed over half of the recently concluded 2023-24 NFL season with a devastating Achilles tear that forced O'Connell to have to rely on a Motley crew of backups to get them through the campaign, but the hope within the Vikings organization was that Cousins would be back and healthy, ready to go for 2024-25.
Now, all eyes naturally will turn toward the upcoming NFL Draft in April, and if O'Connell's recent remarks on ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show are any indication, the team might look to secure its next quarterback right then and there.
“I think that it's important that if you end up falling in love with multiple quarterbacks in the draft, that’s an even better thing,” said O'Connell, per Pat McAfee on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “You know, especially when you did something like we did to acquire pick 23, really for the flexibility of what we think is a really good draft. You know everybody’s making a big point about the quarterback position. I think that’s real. Two picks, this is a, I should say, very deep draft.”
Indeed, many analysts have pointed to the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft class as one of the most talented in years from a quarterback standpoint, as names like Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, JJ McCarthy, and others all project to go highly when the proceedings get underway.
A crossroads for the Vikings
Coming into the 2023 season, the Vikings were looking to capitalize on what had been a relatively successful 2022 campaign, which culminated in the team making the playoffs but then losing at home in disappointing fashion to the New York Giants in the Wild Card round of the NFC playoffs.
Instead, Cousins went down with the Achilles tear, and superstar receiver Justin Jefferson also battled injuries throughout the campaign, rendering 2023 somewhat of a lost season for coach O'Connell and his staff. At one point, it looked like Joshua Dobbs, who was brought in from the Arizona Cardinals to be the team's backup in Cousins' absence, might lead a resurgence for the team, which began with a surprising road win vs the Atlanta Falcons. That momentum continued for a couple of weeks before Dobbs' play fell off of a cliff, and along with it, Minnesota's chances at securing another playoff birth.
Now begins a highly important draft process for the Vikings' scouting department. While the more marquee names of Daniels, Williams, and Maye are likely to be off of the board by the time Minnesota's pick rolls around, there's a good chance that players like McCarthy, or even Michael Penix–who just finished leading the Washington Huskies all the way to the National Championship Game, could still be available.
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