Clarifying Minnesota’s Two Additional Draft Picks

We did a story earlier today about where the first selection for the Minnesota Vikings in the 2017 NFL Draft is going to be, but I wanted to do a clarification about the two additional picks that the purple will be receiving in this year’s selection process.

In the third round of the 2016 Draft, the Vikings sent their third-round pick (#86 overall) to the Miami Dolphins. In exchange, they got the Dolphins’ sixth-round pick in 2016 (#186 overall, which they wound up trading back to the Dolphins for two more selections), as well as third and fourth-round selections in 2017.

As it stands now, the Dolphins’ draft position in the 2017 Draft has not been determined, and won’t be until they’re eliminated from the postseason. Their pick in each round could be anywhere from the 21st pick to the 32nd pick. The earlier in the postseason they lose, the higher in each round their selections will be.

The fourth-round pick was deemed to be a “conditional” pick. That “condition” is whether or not the Dolphins receive a compensatory selection in the fourth round of this year’s draft. (Starting this year, compensatory picks are eligible to be traded.) If the Dolphins receive a compensatory pick in the fourth round of this year’s draft, that is the pick that will be sent to Minnesota. If they don’t receive a fourth-round compensatory pick, the Vikings will receive the Dolphins’ regular fourth-round selection.

The third-round pick, on the other hand, does not have any sort of conditions on it. The Vikings will receive Miami’s regular third-round draft choice whether the Dolphins get a third-round compensatory selection or not. That pick, which again depends on where the Dolphins finish their postseason run, could be anywhere from #85 to #96 overall.

(All of this information is taken from the article on the Vikings’ official website that they posted just after the trade.)

While the compensatory selections have not been announced yet, and won’t be until we get much closer to draft day, the folks from Over The Cap have a forecast of where they think the compensatory picks are going to go in 2017. They have the Dolphins receiving a compensatory selection in the third round (for defensive end Olivier Vernon) and one in the fifth round (for running back Lamar Miller), but not one in the fourth round that they could send to the Vikings in place of their regular fourth-round selection.

This is something that we’ll have to keep an eye on going forward. We know that the Vikings will have five selections between Rounds 2 and 4, but we won’t know where exactly they are for at least a few weeks.