We’re two weeks away from the 2024 NFL Draft and some players’ draft stock are starting to skyrocket – particularly, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
In his newest mock draft , dubbed “NFL Mock Draft 4.0,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. projected a massive trade up. In an interesting twist of fate, he has the Minnesota Vikings trading up from No. 11 to No. 5 with the Los Angeles Chargers to select McCarthy.
With quarterbacks Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye all off the board in the first three picks and wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. going to the Arizona Cardinals with the fourth, the door is open for the Vikings to take any other player. And in this case, that’ll be McCarthy rather than the likes of Bo Nix or Michael Penix Jr.
The Chargers are run by McCarthy’s former head coach Jim Harbaugh, so it would be quite ironic to see Harbaugh trade down to let another team draft his national title-winning protege. But Harbaugh doesn’t need McCarthy as he already has a franchise quarterback with Justin Herbert.
Minnesota certainly makes the most sense as a team that would move up to draft A quarterback, if not McCarthy. A few weeks back they traded up with the Houston Texans to acquire the No. 23 overall pick in the draft, setting themselves up with a pre-draft or draft day trade to move up into the top 10 or even the top five for the player they want.
But as mentioned earlier, there are quarterback options beyond just J.J. McCarthy.
Will the Vikings do what Kiper projects them to do and trade up for McCarthy? Will they trade up for another quarterback, perhaps?