With the 11th pick, your Minnesota Vikings select...

I understand your point. I just want a better prospect. I don't think these guys are worth it.

Rat, first peace be with you. I have no issues with your views and my post wasn’t directed to you.

Second I agree with some of your post especially about bringing in some quality with our pick. I want that too. Difference is I see quality.

My main gripe (not with you) is I see a lot of Vikings fans with post traumatic stress about drafting a qb in round one. We have to get over that. Yes it’s a gamble, but majority of best qbs are always first round picks. This team needs to try again and it’s been awhile. Also the current regime wasn’t here when those other QBs were picked. It’s time.

Kirk will be 36 this summer coming off serious injury. He also eats away a big chunk of the cap. Kirk is a good qb, but not great. He tops out at second round of playoffs at best and can’t consistently carry the team when they need it. Need to get off that huge contract. Use it for other positions. Fill some holes with it.

There rant over and we are still buds.

I think we first have to realize that actually winning the Superbowl is HARD..and a lot of luck. Yes that is my only goal as a Vikings fan, and I would think everyone else. That is all that is left to see as a Vikings fan.

If that is your you stipulation to show how 1st round picks have done,trading up, blah blah Im sure you could find any stat to fit your narrative. Any direction you go is a gamble, that is the fun of us watching sports and why this forum is created and why we are still talking Vikings football a week after the season is over. There is no one path that you can build a team, but I for one would like to try something new..

But still - half of those are first rounders. (And yes you may add Brady, but I could also back up your "modern era" to include 1st rounders Terry Bradshaw and Bob Griese who are younger than Stabler. Or point out that Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger will get in before Brady.)

OK, before you say 50% may not seem like great odds, consider that the first round is only 32 players. They pick 224 other players every year, and since you're going back to the Fouts/Stabler era with 17 rounds, 448 more in those years. You're comparing a very small population (first rounders) to a very large one (EVERYONE ELSE). Yeah, there are going to be some good players outside the first round! Also: HOF is a pretty damn high standard for comparison. I think others here have looked at other levels for QB (like multi-year starter) and round 1 ends up even stronger.

If you're saying we could try to find a QB outside round 1 - yes, by all means! One of my frequent critiques of KAM/KOC re the QB position is that they could have at least tried one of the day 2-3 QBs who had potential to develop: Sam Howell, Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis (I'll skip Purdy but...). We had only Sean Mannion as backup at the time, and if KOC is a QB developer he may have had one of those guys ready to contribute by this year when we really needed that, regardless if he became a long-term starter. It could certainly have been a better investment than Brian Asamoah, a player apparently chosen so Kwesi could promote his Ghana heritage linebacker who was a bit of a reach and has turned into a scrub.

The Vikings have never invested regularly in the QB position. Good teams add them even if they have a good starter or higher-drafted player. Think the Steelers regret spending a 3rd on Mason Rudolph though they had Roethlisberger already? But I still believe the first round holds the highest odds of finding a starter, or a HOFer.

Honestly that would be pretty short sighted on JJ's part. I could see him staying if he thought he could go much higher in 2025 in a weak class, but getting to FA a year early has its benefits too in the NFL... He could be married to Harbaugh, on that I agree, but he also has no control over whether he can play for him.



I am not a gambler... And I do agree that a lot of the mentality around QB's in the draft scream gambler's mentality. I'm not opposed to trading up for a reasonable cost for the right guy (though my confidence in KOC at the moment in identifying and developing said guy is not very high), so something like what KC did for Mahomes as an example is reasonable as it doesn't hamstring you for a long time, but I'd be against what SF did for Lance. Keep in mind though, there was a big debate between Manning and one other guy... Ryan Leaf... Lots of those generational guys end up not being what people thought they would be.

The fear side is dangerous too though. We need to get younger there. We saw the downside of no Kirk. It wasn't pretty. FA QBs are rarely pretty either. So like it or not, I think we need to make a calculated shot, and probably with a bridge QB because whomever we take probably needs development.



You're right. Rome wasn't built in a day. I think you have to accept the Wilf mandate whether you agree with it or not. I don't like it either, but it is what it is. So what gets us there? I'd argue you have to play to the strengths of the draft class? Like it or not, this year is deep in QB talent, so taking one high makes sense. Does that mean trading up? To your point, not necessarily, but for the right price, I'm not against it. We do have 40ish M in cap space assuming Kirk, Hunter, and Smith are all gone and that dead cap hits immediately... So we can invest in the defense as long as we don't spend 40M on a certain bridge QB. We can extend Hunter and spread out his dead cap a bit and give us more flexibility.

My point is that some smart FA moves can give Flores a lot more toys to work with and really improve the defense and help with your concerns about fading down the stretch and fading at the end of games. It won't solve the problem in 2024... I do hope it's a step forward though and leaves us with a cheap young QB in 2025 ready to run the offense with a lot of cap and draft capital to plug any remaining holes.

don't think you can promise that. He's over 200lbs now and I'm sure he will bulk up once he gets older and is in a nfl weight program

Pretty much. He has already bulked up to hopefully over 200 lbs. You don't see QBs go from college to the NFL and bulk up fyi...