Now that the 2024 NFL Draft is over, the draft grades are flooding in. Everyone has a different opinion on how the Minnesota Vikings fared in the draft, ranging from unadulterated excitement to sheer doom-and-gloom. One of the titans of the industry, ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Jr., has weighed in with his thoughts, and he’s somewhere in the middle.
In his recap of the 2024 NFL Draft, Kiper has given the Vikings a C+ for their efforts. Minnesota did well to come away from the draft with J.J. McCarthy, not needing to move up as high as Kiper would have thought. Kiper points out that McCarthy landed in arguably the best situation for him, with “excellent pass catchers and a gifted game-planner”.
The Vikings also came out of the first round of the draft with the top-rated EDGE rusher on Kiper’s board, Alabama’s Dallas Turner. Kiper was surprised general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah didn’t target a corner at this spot, but they somewhat made up for it by taking former Oregon corner Khyree Jackson in the fourth round.
Kiper’s biggest criticism of the Vikings draft haul isn’t the players that were taken but rather the “mortgaging of the future of this Minnesota roster,” as he puts it. The Vikings traded away a second-round pick next year prior to the draft to acquire the Houston Texans’ first-round pick. In the move up for Tuner, the Vikings gave up third—and fourth-round picks next year.
Those moves leave the Vikings with just three picks in the 2025 NFL Draft: one in the first and two in the fifth. They’ll likely receive at least one compensatory pick for the free agents they lost in the offseason, but it’s understandable why Kiper hesitates to go any higher with his grade in light of what it means for the future.