Denver Broncos: Plenty of trade down options in the 2021 NFL Draft

Denver Broncos 2021 NFL Draft trade down options: Minnesota Vikings

Vikings 2021 selection: 14th overall

Cue up the Spiderman pointing at Spiderman memes.

The Denver Broncos are inheriting a Vikings-like approach from George Paton, who has been working side-by-side with Minnesota general manager Rick Spielman for the better part of his 25 years in the NFL.

The Vikings hold the 14th overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft but do not have a second-round pick thanks to the unfortunate Yannick Ngakoue trade.

The Vikings ended up trading Ngakoue not long after acquiring him for much less return on value than they got. Who knows if that was a financially driven decision or if it was the fit of Ngakoue with the Vikings’ culture? Whatever it was, it cost the Vikings dearly in terms of their 2021 NFL Draft capital but they were at least able to recoup a top 100 pick from the Baltimore Ravens.

Getting something back for Ngakoue in 2021 is probably better than what the Vikings would have gotten as a compensatory selection in 2022, but still…

The Vikings are an option if they identify someone worth moving up for, and there are some who feel like Minnesota is a darkhorse team to move up for a quarterback.

If they want someone to sit for a year behind Kirk Cousins and like a player like Trey Lance, the Vikings may sacrifice their own preferred philosophy of accumulating picks to get their QB of the future in the building.