Sports

RandBall: Would Vikings redo 2024 draft and give four No. 1 picks to New England?

Two years ago, would you have sent four No. 1 picks to New England to draft at No. 3? What seemed like a laughable sum is not so laughable now.

By Michael Rand

The Minnesota Star Tribune

January 29, 2026 at 5:41PM

Quarterbacks Drake Maye, left, and J.J. McCarthy were both linked to the Vikings ahead of the 2024 NFL draft. Maye ended up in New England as the No. 3 overall pick. (Stew Milne/The Associated Press; Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In the leadup to the 2024 NFL draft, speculation was rampant.

There were six quarterbacks who figured to be chosen high in the draft and perhaps even more teams that needed QBs were picking near the top.

How the quarterbacks would sort themselves out and what the price might be to move into a spot to get a premium pick was a hot topic.

The Patriots were picking No. 3 overall and seemed open to the idea of a trade.

“We’re open to trading the pick, we’re open to taking a guy there,” Jerrod Mayo, New England’s coach at the time, said in the weeks leading up to the 2024 draft. “We sit at a very enviable spot at No. 3 where we could take someone at No. 3, or if someone offers a bag as we would say — a lot of first-round picks — we definitely have to talk about those things as we continue to put together this team."

What exactly did New England want? What exactly would the Vikings have given up to get to No. 3? And if anyone could do it all over again, would they?

La Velle E. Neal III and I talked about that on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

Let’s dig into the revisionist history at the start of today’s 10 things to know:

We don’t know exactly what the Vikings might have offered to move up to No. 3, but it has been reported that it was at least three first-round picks. At the time, that would have been No. 11 and No. 23 in the 2024 draft (the Vikings later moved up from both of those spots to take J.J. McCarthy at No. 10 and Dallas Turner at No. 17) plus their first-round pick in 2025.
That wasn’t enough to move the Patriots. Maybe nothing would have been. But there were rumblings New England wanted four first-round picks, which seemed absurd at the time.
In hindsight, though, would the Vikings have been happy to make the trade? For the sake of simplicity even though it took even more capital to move up for the picks they actually made, if you were the Vikings right now would you give up McCarthy, Turner, 2025 pick Donovan Jackson and the 2026 first round pick if you could have Maye?
My answer to that is yes. Maye was an MVP candidate this year, throwing for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns while leading the Patriots into the Super Bowl. It is obviously a lot to give up, and nobody knew exactly how good Maye would be (or how McCarthy would struggle on the field and to stay healthy early in his career), but if you get it right at quarterback you can solve other problems later on.
La Velle wasn’t so sure the Vikings would make the deal in hindsight (and we know the Patriots wouldn’t). La Velle (correctly) noted that Turner and Jackson look like valuable players, that McCarthy can still turn into a viable starter and that the Vikings will fill another hole with this year’s top pick.
We also talked about Twins spending and the Bill Belichick controversy during Thursday’s podcast. I enjoyed Mark Craig’s perspective on Belichick, which you can read here.
Here is Jeff Day’s story about former Viking Matt Kalil and his ex-wife, in case you haven’t gotten the link in a group chat yet.
Wednesday’s podcast featured Chris Hine and I talking about the Wolves’ depth woes. So of course they went 10 deep in a comfortable win over the Mavericks.
Depth has been a problem all year for Niko Medved’s Gophers, and that was the case again in a loss to the Badgers.
Speaking of woes, Randy Johnson will join me on Friday’s show to talk about the struggles of the Gophers men’s hockey team.

about the writer

Michael Rand

Columnist / Reporter

Michael Rand is the Minnesota Star Tribune's Digital Sports Senior Writer and host/creator of the Daily Delivery podcast. In 25 years covering Minnesota sports at the Minnesota Star Tribune, he has seen just about everything (except, of course, a Vikings Super Bowl).

More from Sports

Twins

Souhan: Despite leaving broadcast booth, Dick Bremer still gets plenty of baseball

Jim Souhan

Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Twins

Souhan: Despite leaving broadcast booth, Dick Bremer still gets plenty of baseball

Jim Souhan

Bremer will go into the Twins Hall of Fame this summer and enjoys listening to his son’s play-by-play of minor league games.

Sports