The Vikings are set to get three compensatory picks, but one pick is in danger of being lost

AtoZ Sports

Tyler Forness discusses the Minnesota Vikings compensatory picks for the 2026 draft and how one of the picks is in danger of being lost while hinging on the playing time of Trent Sherfield Sr. in the upcoming season

Transcript

00:00The Minnesota Vikings are projected to get three compensatory picks, but how could they

00:04lose one?

00:05It's a little simpler than you might think.

00:10The Minnesota Vikings are set to get three compensatory picks.

00:13That's what the entire offseason was built on.

00:15Yeah, they wanted to build the strongest team, but by building the strongest team, you have

00:19to have foresight and you have to look into the future.

00:21And one of the ways the Vikings were doing so is signing players who were cut so they

00:25could get compensatory picks down the line.

00:27Those picks will come in the 2026 NFL draft.

00:32We won't know what they will get until March, but thanks to over the caps, Nick Cordy, who

00:36is the foremost expert on compensatory picks.

00:39We are seeing the projections.

00:41Sam Donald's going to net them the 97th pick.

00:43There is nobody else who could knock them off of that spot.

00:47So he's going to get pick 97.

00:48That one is essentially a lock, but the other two aren't.

00:52And the second one is Daniel Jones.

00:54Right now, he is projected to get a fourth round compensatory pick back, but that could

00:58turn into a fifth very easily.

01:00Let me explain.

01:01The compensatory formula is very simple.

01:04It's you get a point total based on your average annual value of the contract.

01:08So the top point total is 1968.

01:11And that goes to Dak Prescott.

01:13Then after that, you have to add in the snap percentage.

01:16It has to be over 25%, but the snap percentage, essentially, if it's 50%, you get 50 points.

01:22And then you can also get points by becoming all pro or being added to a pro football writers

01:26association team.

01:28Those things matter.

01:29And you have to add them all up.

01:31And then it's put into the formula.

01:32And then at the end of the year, when March comes around, it's then that we get to see

01:37who gets the compensatory pick.

01:39But right now, there are only four players behind Jones that also qualify for that fourth

01:45round threshold.

01:45He has a 62% snap percentage right now.

01:49And if Anthony Richardson wins a job and somehow plays all year, that could get knocked to

01:52a fifth pretty easily.

01:55And that's something to keep in mind.

01:56And that would be about a 40 spot difference.

01:59That could be a difference between a guy who could end up starting and a guy who's never

02:02getting above special teams.

02:04That can matter.

02:05The other one is Trent Shurfield.

02:07Right now, the Vikings are in line to get the last pick in the NFL draft.

02:11Shurfield is barely above the cutoff.

02:13When you look at Shurfield, he played about.

02:15About 32% of the snaps last year.

02:17If he plays lower than that, or if he gets cut, being cut, you can still qualify.

02:22But if you don't have that snap percentage, that's going to kick him out of that spot.

02:25And the Vikings would not get that pick.

02:27So how much Shurfield plays is going to matter in this situation.

02:31And that is going to be a big, big deal.

02:35Now, day three picks aren't the end all be all.

02:37But we've seen plenty of day three picks make a big impact in Minnesota Vikings over the

02:41course of the past 10, 15 years.

02:43Remember Stefan Diggs?

02:44It's going to be interesting to see how this pans out.

02:46But even if it doesn't pan out the way you want, they're still going to get a third and

02:49fifth round pick.

02:50Pretty good.

02:51I'm Tyler Fornes with ADZ Sports.

02:53It's called Vikings.

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