Kirk Cousins compensatory pick likely to give Vikings another top-100 selection

Draft capital is limited for the Minnesota Vikings in 2025, but one cannot forget that a potential third-round compensatory pick, stemming from Kirk Cousins leaving for Atlanta, could be awarded to Minnesota.

In fact, it sounds like the Vikings have been banking on the Cousins compensatory pick being a third-rounder for quite some time. Back in May, Ben Goessling, who covers the Vikings for the Minnesota Star Tribune, said he was told that the Vikings have long been expecting one and only one third-round pick in 2025.

As it stands now, the only picks the Vikings have in 2025 are the No. 24 selection in the first round and two picks in the fifth round, one of them from the Cleveland Browns from the 2023 Za’Darius Smith trade.

Over The Cap’s Nick Korte is projecting four teams to be awarded third-round compensation picks, with the Vikings being joined by the Dolphins, 49ers and Rams.

Teams can qualify for compensatory picks by losing more qualifying free agents than they gain. Last offseason, the Vikings lost six qualifying free agents and signed five. NFL.com wrote last May that the Vikings “signed five but lost six, with Cousins’ contract left as the unmatched deal.”

Minnesota traded its 2024 second-, third- and fourth-round picks for the rights to the No. 17 pick in the 2024 draft, which they used to take outside linebacker Dallas Turner. Turner didn’t live up to the hype as a rookie, but he still has time to prove the Vikings right for giving up so much to draft him.

The Vikings’ 2025 sixth- and seventh-round picks were sent to Cleveland in the Smith trade in 2023.

In 2024, the third-round comp picks were 96-100 overall, so Minnesota is likely going to get a second top-100 pick in 2025 to join the No. 24 overall selection.