The Minnesota Vikings did a lot in the 2024 NFL Draft to secure the future of their franchise and continue building a solid foundation. Namely, they drafted their presumed future franchise quarterback J.J. McCarthy, with the 10th pick in the first round.
But one pick in the first wasn’t enough for them, as they traded their second, third, and fourth-round picks in 2025 to come back into the first and draft edge rusher Dallas Turner.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, they didn’t see much return on either of those picks in 2024 — for very different reasons. McCarthy suffered a season-ending injury in the preseason, opening the door for Sam Darnold to have a career year in 2024.
On the other hand, Turner was healthy all year but struggled to see much playing time. To make matters worse for the Vikings, that trade left the team with just a first and two fifth-round picks in 2025 (also owing in part to the 2023 trade of Za’Darius Smith). But thankfully, some help might be on the way in the form of compensatory picks.
Every season, the NFL hands out compensatory picks in the upcoming NFL Draft for teams that lost significant players in the previous year’s free agency period. A complicated formula goes into calculating how many picks each team gets, and which rounds those picks will be in.
So, how many picks will Minnesota get, and which rounds will they be in?
According to the latest projection from Nick Korte of Over the Cap, the Vikings are expected to get just one compensatory pick, but it’s projected to be a third-round pick as compensation for the loss of quarterback Kirk Cousins to the Atlanta Falcons.
Getting a third-round pick back certainly helps to mitigate the team’s draft situation, but they are still strapped for picks and have a lot of holes on the roster to fill — particularly in the defensive backfield. However, the team does project to have a significant amount of salary cap space, so they figure to be big players in the free agent market this year, rather than the NFL Draft.