The worst-kept secret heading into the 2024 NF Draft is that the Minnesota Vikings and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensa want to trade up for a quarterback. Despite that fact, Adofo-Mensa is still keeping things as close to the vest as possible, refusing to even divulge how many franchise quarterbacks he thinks are in this draft class.
At a pre-draft press conference, a reporter asked Adofo-Mensa how many franchise signal-callers he thought were in this class.
“I wish I could give you that answer, man,” Adofo-Mensa said with a smile. “That would make my [trade] phone calls a little tougher. … It’s hard speaking right before the draft. I know you might think that is an innocuous question, and afterwards, I’d love to tell you. It’s just something that makes your phone calls a little bit harder — teams knowing exactly how many I think, that would kind of change their approach to me.”
That answer makes it pretty clear that the Vikings are planning a trade-up in the draft. Adofo-Mensa was right not to divulge anything about the prospects he likes, though. How many QBs he is comfortable with will dictate how far up from 11 he has to go to get his guy, and he wouldn’t want opposing GMs to know that.
How many franchise quarterbacks are in the 2024 NFL Draft?
Caleb Williams out of USC is going to be the No. 1 overall pick of the Chicago Bears. After that, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, and Michigan’s JJ McCarthy will come off the board — possibly in that order — after that.
The Bears are 100% keeping their pick at this point, so that leaves three of the top four QBs available to the Vikings if they decide to trade up. That’s likely how many franchise QBs there are in this draft.
If Kewsi Adofo-Mensa believed that there were five or six franchise quarterbacks in this class, then his best move would be to wait for one at No. 11 where he could conceivably get McCarthy if things go right, or almost certainly gram Bo Nix from Oregon or Michael Penix Jr. from Washington.
The fact that the Vikings already traded with the Houston Texans for another first-round selection, combined with Adofo-Mensa’s recent statements shows that the franchise is likely to trade up.
Additionally, the GM also said, “Just because something is risky doesn't mean you have to stay away from it,” per NFL.com.
This seems to indicate that Adofo-Mensa is ready to take a big swing in the 2024 NFL Draft.
With the way things stand two weeks before the draft, it looks like the path of least resistance would be to trade up to No. 4 with the Arizona Cardinals and take JJ McCarthy. However, if they like Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye, they may have to go up even further, which means giving up even more draft picks. That’s because the Washington Commanders and New England Patriots, respectively, seem destined to take those two players.
Going up that high will cost Adofo-Mensa and the Vikings, though. In 2021, the San Francisco 49ers moved up from No. 12 to No. 3 to draft Trey Lance (bad move!) and it cost them No. 12, a third-round pick, and their next two first-rounders.
That is about what it will take for the Vikings to move up that far in the 2024 NFL Draft.
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