We’re on to day three of the “send a quarterback to Minnesota” party. Today, DraftWire’s own Jeff Risdon joins the likes of Trevor Sikkema and Ryan Fowler, this time sending North Carolina star Drake Maye to the Vikings in the first round. Like Sikkema, Risdon used the current NFL draft order after the end of Week 4’s action, so we once again have the Vikings using a top 5 selection at the most important position in football.
Coming into the season, most of the hype about the 2024 NFL draft class of quarterbacks centered around Maye and his USC counterpart Caleb Williams. While Williams has stayed largely undisputed at the top of the class, Maye’s hype has died down somewhat as the college football season has progressed. In addition, a number of quarterbacks — including Michael Penix, Jr and Shedeur Sanders — have had strong seasons and are rising up NFL draft boards.
Buy Vikings TicketsLike Penix, Maye is an athletic quarterback with a big arm who would fit well into the system Kevin O’Connell has run in Minnesota. His talents would be put to good use with the likes of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison surrounding him. We’ll have to wait until April to see how everything plays out, but there’s clearly a strong early trend in mock drafts for the Vikings.
With the Vikings’ early perceived struggles along the offensive and defensive lines, it’s interesting that we haven’t seen any predictions for those positions yet. It’s clear that NFL draft prognosticators feel Minnesota has bigger needs on their hands — and they’re likely right with Kirk Cousins unlikely to be back in Minnesota next season.
