NFL Draft 2024 Rumors: Raiders, Vikings 'Most Strongly' Linked to Trade Up for QB

One month away from the 2024 NFL draft, it's becoming clearer which teams want to make a trade up in the first round if they can get their preferred quarterback.

On Thursday's SportsCenter, ESPN's Dan Graziano reported the Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders are the two teams "most strongly" believed to be preparing to make a "big jump" if the quarterback they like is still on the board.

It's unclear which quarterback the Raiders and Vikings might prefer, though Graziano seemed to indicate it was LSU's Jayden Daniels for both teams.

"If Washington takes Jayden Daniels (at No. 2), that might make the Vikings or the Raiders less motivated to go up if Daniels is the guy they like over Drake Maye," he said. "If Washington takes Maye, and the Vikings and Raiders both want Daniels, all of a sudden that Patriots pick at number three becomes very valuable."

The worst-kept secret in the NFL is the Vikings are trying to come out of the first round with a quarterback. They already made the biggest pre-draft trade of the offseason, acquiring the No. 23 overall pick and a seventh-rounder from the Houston Texans for the No. 42 pick, a sixth-rounder this year and a 2025 second-round selection.

Minnesota currently owns picks 11 and 23. Head coach Kevin O'Connell told reporters this week at the league meetings they created "flexibility" by acquiring the extra first-round pick if they want to make another trade up:

"That's the flexibility we really wanted when considering what we were able to do in that trade. And it's rare to do a trade like that early in the process; we felt like that was kind of a draft-day kind of trade that we were able to make early and then maybe not pay the extreme price tag that you do when people tend to know what you may be going up for."

The Vikings own a total of nine picks in the 2024 draft, but none in Rounds 2 or 3 because of the trade with Houston. The Raiders have eight picks, including one in each of the first six rounds.

Even though the Vikings have a more immediately favorable trade to offer with two first-round picks, the Raiders' potential offer might be better for a team to consider because they would likely have to send out at least one future first-round selection to move up.

Las Vegas' current first-round pick is at No. 13 overall. When the San Francisco 49ers moved up from No. 12 to No. 3 in the 2021 draft, they swapped their first-rounder that year and sent additional first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 to the Miami Dolphins.

If a team like the Patriots at No. 3 thinks the Raiders won't be very good in 2024, they might be more inclined to accept their offer if it were to include a first-round pick next year.

Of course, the danger in doing that is what happened to the Arizona Cardinals last year. They traded the No. 3 pick to the Texans, who drafted Will Anderson Jr. immediately after using their own selection on C.J. Stroud.

At the time, Houston's side of the deal was panned for giving up a lot of its surplus value. The Cardinals may have thought they would be getting a top-10 pick this year. Instead, Stroud turned in one of the best rookie seasons by a quarterback in NFL history, the Texans advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs and only had to surrender the No. 27 pick.

The assumption is Caleb Williams will be the top pick to the Chicago Bears. All of the intrigue will start with the Commanders at No. 2, because their selection will likely dictate what the other teams looking for quarterbacks are going to do.