In an alternate universe, the Minnesota Vikings aren’t entering the week of the 2024 NFL Draft with a heightened urgency behind the most important position in sports. Instead of putting all of their proverbial chips in the trade up for a quarterback bucket come Thursday night, the Vikings could’ve had their succession plan for Kirk Cousins already on the roster.
Former Kentucky quarterback Will Levis was connected to the Vikings throughout the draft process last season. KSTP’s Darren Wolfson reported in March 2023 that Kevin O’Connell was a fan of Levis.
A few weeks later, The Athletic conducted a league-wide mock draft with all their beat writers making the selections for their respective teams. Vikings insider Alec Lewis predicted that Minnesota would trade up to No. 7 overall and select Levis.
There was a palpable buzz that the Vikings could trade up for a signal caller on the night of April 27, 2023. When Levis experienced a slide after Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Anthony Richardson were selected in the first four picks, many thought the Vikings would select Levis 23rd overall.
Instead, Minnesota took Jordan Addison, and Levis fell to the Tennessee Titans at 33rd overall. Levis flashed in his first career start against the Atlanta Falcons. He threw four touchdown passes and later helped lead a major upset over the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football by throwing for a season-high 327 yards. However, he struggled as a rookie.
Similar to Bryce Young last year and Trevor Lawrence in 2021, the Titans are building a strong foundation around their second-year quarterback with newly hired offensive-minded head coach Brian Callahan, Calvin Ridley, and Tony Pollard. The expectation should be that the former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator helps Levis take his game to another level in 2024.
What if the Vikings took Levis with their first-round pick? Now that Minnesota has picks 11 and 23, let’s explore what their 2024 draft could look like.
There are really three primary paths the Vikings could take. The first is to go all-in and attempt to trade up to No. 3 or No. 4 to insert Marvin Harrison Jr. as the Robin to Justin Jefferson‘s Batman. That would likely cost the Vikings the 11th and 23rd overall picks in this year’s draft, plus their 2025 first-rounder. While the compensation would be steep, having the ability to pair the best wide receiver on the planet with the best rookie receiver prospect to come out recently is a tantalizing proposition.
The other path would be to stand pat at 11 and hope that either LSU’s Malik Nabers and/or Washington’s Rome Odunze makes it past the top-10. That way, the Vikings still end up with an elite receiver prospect as their No. 2 while preserving their additional first-rounder to address the defensive front with any of Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, UCLA edge Laiatu Latu, Florida State edge Jared Verse, Penn State edge Chop Robinson, or Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton.
If Nabers and Odunze are off the board when the Vikings make their first selection at 11th overall, the hope would be that Alabama edge rusher Dallas Turner is still available. Inserting a premier pass rusher like Turner would certainly help cushion the blow of losing Danielle Hunter while simultaneously presenting the Vikings with a serious one-two pass-rush punch for years to come alongside Jonathan Greenard. With Turner as the 11th pick, the Vikings could pivot to WR2 with the 23rd pick. Maybe LSU’s Brian Thomas, Texas’ Xavier Worthy or Adonai Mitchell, or Georgia’s Ladd McConkey.
Suppose the Vikings strike out on their efforts to trade up for a quarterback on Thursday night. Then, any of these three scenarios (with Levis at quarterback) appear more desirable than drafting either Bo Nix or Michael Penix Jr at 11 and then selecting a defender at 23. While Jordan Addison is a solid WR2, this draft class’ crop of receivers made it a heck of a lot easier to address WR2 while still having the succession plan at quarterback in place with Levis.
Ideally, the Vikings identify a dance partner before Thursday night and trade up for either Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, or J.J. McCarthy. If they can’t do so, the second-guessing of passing on Levis (especially if he takes a jump in Year 2 under Callahan) and building out the rest of the roster with these two first-rounders this year could grow louder.
