The list came out today
The National Football League released the list of Compensatory selections for the 2025 NFL Draft, which are based on the happenings of free agency from the previous season as far as players lost and gained are concerned. The Minnesota Vikings were expected to get one selection from that pool, and that’s exactly what happened.
The Vikings now own the 97th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, which is a third-round selection. It’s also the highest pick a team can receive in the Compensatory pick process. The first three rounds of “regular” draft picks stops at 96 (after each team, in theory, has made three picks), so even though the Vikings only received one extra selection for this April’s NFL Draft, at least they got the best one.
This pick comes from the loss of quarterback Kirk Cousins, who signed a four-year, $180 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons that became official at the start of the new league year. As we know, that signing didn’t work out for the Falcons as well as they would have liked, as Cousins was benched towards the end of the season and all signs now point to the Falcons letting him go after just one season at the helm.
The rest of the Vikings’ activity during free agency last season all balanced out according to whatever mysterious formula the NFL uses to compute these things, which is why they did not receive any other selections.
This means that the Vikings now have four total selections in this year’s NFL Draft: Their first-round pick, this third-round Compensatory pick, and a pair of fifth-round selections, including one that they received from the Cleveland Browns in the Za’Darius Smith trade. I’m going to guess the Vikings will make more than four picks on Draft weekend. . .it’s just a matter of how Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and company intend to make that happen.
