Last April, the Minnesota Vikings made the decision to trade up in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft and select former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy with the hopes that he can help lead the franchise to its first-ever Super Bowl win. A few months later, some already believe the Vikings picked the wrong quarterback in the 2024 draft.
A 2024 re-draft was conducted during a recent episode of ESPN's "First Draft" podcast, and instead of McCarthy, longtime ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. had Minnesota using its top selection on current Denver Broncos rookie signal-caller Bo Nix.
From everything that we saw from McCarthy before his injury in August, the Vikings using their first of two 2024 first-round picks on Nix would have definitely felt like a downgrade.
Minnesota Vikings got it right by passing on Bo Nix in 2024 NFL Draft
It's easy to sit there and say that because Nix is currently playing and not sitting out the 2024 season with a knee injury, he would have been the better selection for Minnesota last April than McCarthy.
But teams typically shouldn't be drafting players, especially quarterbacks, with the hope that they will step in and help them turn things around immediately. More often than not, it takes multiple seasons for a young signal-caller to even come close to meeting the expectations he was given when he was drafted.
With Nix, he's started all 10 games for the Broncos this season, and heading into Week 11, he ranks 29th in the NFL in passing success rate, 27th in net yards gained per pass attempt, 27th in touchdown percentage, and 26th in passer rating.
Would these numbers be better if he had Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell calling plays for him? Probably, but the improvement also likely wouldn't be that significant compared to what he's done in Denver so far this year.
We also have to remember that Nix is still a rookie this season, and how he's performing 10 games into his first year in the NFL is probably going to be much different than how he plays in another season or two.
Now, he does currently rank fifth in the NFL in rushing yards by a quarterback, and that seems like something noteworthy. But at the same time, teams weren't really interested in drafting Nix earlier this year because they viewed him as some sort of dual-threat quarterback prospect.
When it comes to comparing Nix and McCarthy, all anyone needs to remember is that Minnesota could have selected the current Broncos rookie with their top pick in the 2024 draft since he was still available when they were on the clock. But instead, the Vikings decided to pass on Nix, and they used the pick on McCarthy, who was the guy they wanted all along.
So, it's completely fine for Denver fans to be excited about their favorite team having a young signal-caller to build around for the first time in a while. But when we look back in a few years, the chances still seem high that Minnesota is going to be viewed as a team that ended up with a better quarterback prospect than the Broncos did in the 2024 NFL Draft.