Donovan Jackson from Ohio State, an offensive guard to fill out a new and formidable fivesome in the trenches.

New Vikings Trade Rumor Is Just Fantastic

Fans mostly celebrated the pick as folks have asked for offensive line vitality since the early 2010s.

Now, however, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has just three picks remaining on Friday and Saturday, puny capital compared to other NFL franchises.

But thanks to NFL Network‘s Tom Pelissero, onlookers learned that the Vikings could trade up on Friday night — almost certainly using next year’s picks — to target a fancy rookie running back.

Tom Pelissero Suggests Vikings Draft Trade for RB

Pelissero joined KFAN’s Power Trip Morning Show and spilled the beans: “It’ll be interesting to see. They’ve not been shy in the past about potentially trading future assets to get additional picks now. And when you don’t have a pick until all the way down into the bottom of Round 3, that might become more acute of a need.”

“I do think that one position will be interesting to see, and I’m not saying they’ll do it, but there’s a huge clump of running backs. There’s a really deep running back group.”

Lance Zierlein on Judkins: “Judkins is a productive runner possessing good size and great contact aggression. His running style is both urgent and a bit chaotic. He runs with good burst inside but is more collision-based than wiggle-oriented when maneuvering through the lane. He’s efficient on runs outside the tackle box, but he has a tough time outracing pursuit to create explosive runs.”

“He is wired and built for a heavier carry count and short-yardage success, but the disparity in yards per carry between Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, despite running behind the same line, is telling. Judkins might need to be paired with a slasher, but he has the ingredients needed to become a three-down RB1.”

Zierlein’s comp for Judkins? Joe Mixon.

How to Get Judkins via Trade?

Judkins lives at No. 54 on the Consensus Big Board. The Green Bay Packers own that pick, and if one rightfully assumes that Minnesota won’t do trade business with Green Bay, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are at No. 52

Pick No. 53 (Quinshon Judkins)
Pick 235 (Round 7)

Buccaneers Get:
Pick No. 97 (Round 3)
2026 2nd-Rounder

Expensive, yes — but that’s the name of the game when trading the following year’s draft picks. Price gouging.

Waiting Until Round 5 for RB?

Otherwise, if Pelissero is wrong or Minnesota decides it can’t afford a spendy trade with next year’s picks, these running backs could be options in Round 5:

  • Brashard Smith (SMU)
  • Jordan James (Oregon)
  • Ollie Gordon II (Oklahoma State)
  • Trevor Etienne (Georgia)

A Slam Dunk Offseason at RB

Vikings fans are already over the moon that the club landed Jordan Mason for a low-risk, affordable trade in March. Adofo-Mensah shipped the pick he received in the Ed Ingram trade with Houston to San Francisco for Mason.

If Minnesota wants to fix its ground game once and for all, fully enabling quarterback J.J. McCarthy to succeed, spending next year’s capital on Henderson or Judkins might be worth it.

Aaron Jones will turn 31 in December, and Mason has never handled a full season’s RB1 workload.

Judkins, especially, checks some boxes.

The Ohio State Connect

Then, the Vikings would reunite Judkins with Donovan Jackson, who Minnesota drafted on Thursday night. The top of the Vikings’ draft would be an all Ohio State National Championship Team everything.

ESPN Trashes Vikings' Draft Pick