Details of Vikings’ Private QB Workouts and Courting Process Revealed; Bo Nix Added to List

The 2024 NFL Draft is just around the corner, and while we don’t know who the Minnesota Vikings will be selecting, it’s clear Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will be adding a quarterback to the roster. The Vikings’ front office has been scouting this crop of QB prospects since before the 2023 college football season ever started.

But the past few weeks have been much different, since Kirk Cousins flew the coup to Atlanta. Now, the pressure to uncover Minnesota’s next franchise quarterback is at its peak, and the Vikings can’t afford to mess this one up.

Since we’re not inside team headquarters, at TCO Performance Center in Eagan, all we can do is pore over insider reports from across the NFL world. And on Monday, one of the most plugged-in media members in the industry around this time of year, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, dropped all sorts of new insider knowledge about how the Vikings are approaching the upcoming draft.

Albert Breer is a big fan of Vikings’ QB courting process

Specifically, he hit on how they are getting to know and evaluating quarterbacks. As we’ve noted a few times at MSF, that approach includes Kwesi and O’Connell getting their time in with each top prospect via private workout, not during each QB’s individual pro day.

“I really like the approach the Minnesota Vikings have taken to studying the quarterback class. You might have noticed, over the past couple of weeks, that Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah were absent from the big quarterback pro days, which seemed to fly in the face of the aggressive approach they took to position themselves for a trade up after the move with the Texans in mid-March.”

“The Minnesota contingent, with Adofo-Mensah, O’Connell and McCown heading up the traveling party, had extensive meeting time with the quarterbacks before taking them out on the field. The field work included the coaches and players applying what had been taught in the classroom, and then the ability to put what they could explain between the lines.”

Albert Breer (Sports Illustrated)

While we don’t know how these individual visits went, common sense would tell us that meeting with a QB privately would be a better use of time together than doing it in a group setting, or in a less-conducive environment for 1v1 communicating.

Bo Nix added to Minnesota Vikings list of 3-Day QB workouts

You’ve heard all the reports about their various visits or attempted meetings with prospects such as Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, J.J. McCarthy, and Michael Penix Jr. Now, according to Breer, we can add Bo Nix to that list.

Related: Rick Spielman is Trying to Ship Out Justin Jefferson in Latest Vikings Mock Trade

Oh, and there have been questions about how long the Minnesota Vikings have spent with these quarterbacks, during these private workouts. Breer answered that too. Three days, which is a lot of time to get to know someone.

“Rather than go to the cattle calls that pro days often become, Minnesota dispatched quarterbacks coaches Josh McCown and Grant Udinski to [pro days], and then rolled out a larger group for a three-day whirlwind tour to work out quarterbacks privately. The itinerary included stops in Chapel Hill to meet Drake Maye, Ann Arbor to get with J.J. McCarthy, Seattle to put Penix through the paces and Eugene to see Bo Nix.”

Albert Breer (Sports Illustrated)

Clearly, this staff is doing all due-diligence possible, before making their decision on who their new franchise QB will be. Knowing that gives me a sense of calm, for whatever reason.

Then, the SI piece gets into how good of a situation the Vikings’ next QB will have, whoever it is. The Vikings present a really strong spot for any young QB to succeed in; now it’s just about finding the right player who can execute on a weekly basis.

Related: NFL Insider Believes Vikings Might Already Have Tentative Trade(s) in Place for Draft Night

We may not have all the answers, but after their extensive process, hopefully, the Vikings do. He also notes that, just because the staff spent all that time with these guys already doesn’t mean they won’t bring any of them in for a top-30 visit.

In the end, you figure it gave the Vikings a really good picture of what each guy might look like in Minnesota’s offense, and the team’s culture, with the officials on the ground knowing that they still had the ability to bring the players to Minneapolis for “30” visits in their back pockets if they needed to know more (those haven’t been scheduled yet, but could be).

Albert Breer (Sports Illustrated)