The 2024 NFL Draft begins in Detroit, Michigan in just two weeks. This year’s draft is exciting not only because of the best prospects who will soon fulfill their NFL aspirations. It’s that, for the most part, we still don’t know what will happen on Draft Night when the Chicago Bears choose Caleb Williams with the first overall choice, potentially ending their decades-long hunt for a superstar quarterback. There has been no official indication of what the Washington Commanders will do with the second overall pick, so for all intents and purposes, the draft begins when Washington is on the clock.
According to current betting odds, LSU’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels is the Commanders’ projected #2 pick, but a new development with the Minnesota Vikings may call that into question, as well as the Commanders’ ability to make the selection. The Vikings will enter the NFL Draft with the 11th overall pick. Assuming that any of the top four quarterback prospects in this draft — Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, or JJ McCarthy — will fall to 11, the Vikings’ “private” meeting with Daniels may be a sign that the Vikings are willing to spend future draft capital to move up and get their guy.
To be sure, this might simply be a case of the Vikings conducting their due homework ahead of Draft night. As of present, there is no credible evidence that the Vikings have held conversations with either the Commanders or the New England Patriots, who own the third overall pick, in order to move up and get a quarterback. A while ago, it appeared that the Vikings could be able to select JJ McCarthy with the 11th choice, but McCarthy’s draft value appears to have risen since then, and the National Championship-winning quarterback will now most likely be taken in the top 10.
If the Vikings wish to select one of the previously named top four quarterback prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft, they must trade up. Minnesota not only controls the 11th and 23rd picks in the first round of the NFL Draft, and adding both of those picks in a deal to move up to either #2 or #3 in order to potentially choose Jayden Daniels is undoubtedly the cornerstone of a potentially appealing trade package. However, given the Vikings have a second first-round pick, it is plausible that they will stay at #11, select the best player available, and then select either Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix with the 23rd pick.
The most likely trade up scenario appears to be the following: if Washington selects North Carolina’s Drake Maye with the second overall pick instead of Daniels, the New England Patriots appear to be a more plausible trading partner for any team eager to move up. And if Maye is ahead of Daniels on New England’s draft board, it could mean the Patriots are even more likely to trade the third overall pick, allowing Minnesota to move up into the top three to get their own quarterback of the future, because despite what Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell says about Sam Darnold, Darnold clearly lacks the upside that someone like Jayden Daniels does.
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