It’s all about the picks
Hey, folks. I want to start this one off by apologizing for the relative slowness of the site over the past few days. I caught some sort of virus that spent the whole weekend whooping up on me, but now I think I’ve finally seen the worst of it. Fingers crossed.
Well, after what can only be classed as an outstanding free agency period, the Minnesota Vikings don’t have a lot of issues to address at this point. One that stands out a bit is what the team is going to do at backup quarterback. Considering that J.J. McCarthy has been told by Kevin O’Connell that he isn’t yet the starter*, the team is going to have to bring in an option other than Brett Rypien at some point in the proceedings here.
So why haven’t they already done so, you may wonder? It likely has a bit to do with the team playing the Compensatory Pick game with the 2026 NFL Draft.
As he does every year, Nick Korte of Over the Cap is tracking where he’s projecting all of the Compensatory Picks for 2026 to go. As of now, the Vikings are slated to get two extra selections after what’s gone on in free agency. They’re projected to get the highest Comp pick available for the loss of Sam Darnold (much like they did in this year’s Draft for Kirk Cousins leaving town), and they’re also projected to receive a fourth-round selection for Daniel Jones choosing to go to Indianapolis rather than stay in Minnesota.
Now, Korte’s calculations aren’t official, if for no other reason than nobody really knows how the Compensatory Pick system truly works, but he does have a pretty high accuracy rate with his projections. So, if the Vikings are tracking the same thing as he is, they are likely going to be waiting until after the signing of free agents doesn’t affect the Compensatory Pick calculus, which is usually a week or two after the Draft.
There are some potential exceptions to this. We recently mentioned that the Vikings had some discussions with Ryan Tannehill, who would not count against the Compensatory Pick formula because he was not with a team last season. There’s also the scenario where the Vikings could sign someone who was released rather than having their contract naturally expire, a move that would also not count against the formula.
Yes, you know exactly who I’m talking about with the latter example, and no, you will not catch me advocating for that in any way, shape, or form.
So, if you’re waiting for the Vikings to fill their vacancy at the backup quarterback spot, you’re likely going to have to wait until early-to-mid May for them to do so. A lot of the options that are currently available are likely going to be there when that time comes, so there’s certainly no need to panic yet.
* – He’s totally the starter, don’t let anyone fool you.