Someone in Round 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft
As of now, the Minnesota Vikings hold the 12th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Some of the top QB prospects in April include Dante Moore, Fernando Mendoza, and Ty Simpson. The main downside here, though, is that those passers would likely be out of range unless the Vikings moved up inside the top-10.
Sure, if they keep losing, they'll creep higher up, but a more likely scenario is the front office having to swing a major trade to land who they want. At the same time, would Vikings' fans reallly want GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah making that pick?
He does not have a strong track record in the NFL Draft, and it seems like he missed badly on his JJ McCarthy selection. In the event that Minnesota does use a first-round pick on a QB, they might have a new front office, and this could be a unique situaton where the head coach and some of his assistants stay, but the GM does.
Typically, in the NFL, the head coach is the first to be let go, and then, if things do not work after that, the GM typically is shown the door. However, I would argue that O'Connell is much better at his job than Adofo-Mensah is.
And I bet some fans would agree with me, too. The one way to sustain success in the NFL is to hit on a QB in the NFL Draft, and the Vikings taking McCarthy in 2024 was not a bad move. They seemed to have something worthwhile set up with Darnold and McCarthy in the room, but the second-year QB missing the entire regular season hurt, and it's also very possible that he simply is not an NFL-caliber QB.
It's hard to believe that of the six first-round passers, the Vikings ended up with the worst one, but that is how things are looking. Minnesota could keep taking swings in 2026 and try to grab a first-round pick. In that event, they'd likely have already signed a veteran in free agency.
So, in some ways, it would be a repeat if their setup in 2024, but with the hope that the end results are a lot different.