One month away from the start of the 2024 NFL draft, it’s becoming clearer which teams want to make a trade up in the first round if they can get their preferred quarterback.
On Thursday’s SportsCenter, ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported the Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders are the two teams “most strongly” believed to be preparing to make a “big jump” if the quarterback they like is still on the board.
It’s unclear which quarterback the Raiders and Vikings might prefer, though Graziano seemed to indicate it was LSU’s Jayden Daniels for both teams.
“If Washington takes Jayden Daniels (at No. 2), that might make the Vikings or the Raiders less motivated to go up if Daniels is the guy they like over Drake Maye,” he said.
“If Washington takes Maye, and the Vikings and Raiders both want Daniels, all of a sudden that Patriots pick at number three becomes very valuable.”
The worst-kept secret in the NFL is the Vikings are trying to come out of the first round with a quarterback.
They already made the biggest pre-draft trade of the offseason, acquiring the No. 23 overall pick and a seventh-rounder from the Houston Texans for the No. 42 pick, a sixth-rounder this year and a 2025 second-round selection.
Minnesota currently owns picks 11 and 23.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters this week at the league meetings they created “flexibility” by acquiring the extra first-round pick if they want to make another trade up:
“That’s the flexibility we really wanted when considering what we were able to do in that trade.
And it’s rare to do a trade like that early in the process; we felt like that was kind of a draft-day kind of trade that we were able to make early and then maybe not pay the extreme price tag that you do when people tend to know what you may be going up for.”
The Vikings own a total of nine picks in the 2024 draft, but none in rounds two or three because of the trade with Houston. The Raiders have eight picks, including one in each of the first six rounds.
