The Minnesota Vikings will eye another young quarterback in the upcoming 2025 NFL draft, according to a mock draft by ESPN analyst Ben Solak. According to Solak’s draft, the Vikings will be eager to bring in Will Howard, who last played for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Minnesota Vikings have been quite eager to bring in another quarterback to their locker room and rumors were that the team was showing interest in veteran QB Aaron Rodgers. However, the moment seems to have passed, and the Vikings are shopping for a rookie quarterback in the draft.
“Ideally, the Vikings go QB earlier in this draft — but Howard in Round 6 is a pretty square deal. He had 43 starts over four seasons at Kansas State and a national championship campaign with Ohio State. With the Buckeyes, he looked the part of a poised and trustworthy veteran. I like Howard’s mobility, but he isn’t a one-read-and-scramble escape artist in the pocket. He’ll sit in there, bounce through progressions and look for the correct throw. He can break a tackle or two as well; he’s big and doesn’t shy away from contact. Howard can access all the levels of the field and is generally safe with the football, but he doesn’t see it fast and will get hoodwinked by coverage rotations at the snap. He needs an offense like the one Kevin O’Connell runs, as it protects the quarterback from high processing demands.” Ben Solak said in his mock draft for the Minnesota Vikings.
Will Howard split his college football time between the Kansas State Wildcats from 2020 to 2023 and then for Ohio State in the previous NCAA season. For the Ohio State Buckeyes in his senior year, Howard managed a total of 4,010 passing yards, scoring 35 touchdowns, while managing ten interceptions for the team.
Minnesota Vikings Will Do Well With Will Howard Teaming Up With Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison
In the same mock draft, Ben Solak went on to explain that Will Howard will be a perfect fit for Minnesota’s existing wide receivers, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Solak seems pretty confident of Howard’s performance for the Vikings, even predicting the young quarterback’s future ratings to be like that of Jacoby Brissett.
“At Ohio State, Howard picked his poison on isolation routes with elite college receivers in Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka. In Minnesota, he could do the same with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.”
It is still unclear as to which route the Minnesota Vikings will choose to follow. In the 2024 NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings finished second in the NFC North table after winning 14 games and losing three.
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