It sounds like the Texans wanted Kellen Mond in the 2021 NFL Draft

At the top of the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings surprised some people with the selection of Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond. Sure, the Vikings have needed to start looking towards the future at quarterback for a while now, but where the team picked Mond was a bit of a surprise.

A story from Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, however, has shed a little bit of light on the situation, and it certainly sounds like if the team had not taken Mond at #66 overall, he would not have been around for any of their other three third-round selections.

According to Tomasson’s story, the Houston Texans had contacted Mond telling him that they were going to select him at pick #67. That was the Texans’ first selection of the draft, as they had already traded away their first and second-round picks in previous deals. When Mond’s phone rang, however, it was the Vikings on the other end to tell him that they were selecting him at #66, a selection they got in their first-round trade down with the New York Jets.

With Mond off the board, the Texans took Stanford signal caller Davis Mills with their selection.

Mond, in most respects, is considered to be a bit of a project and will definitely be sitting and learning from Kirk Cousins (barring an injury) in 2021. As Tomasson’s story points out, being selected by the Texans could have thrown him into the starting mix right away given the uncertain future of Deshaun Watson with the team (and the league, for that matter).

I’m not completely sure what the Vikings’ “Plan B” was if they hadn’t gotten Mond to potentially groom as their quarterback of the future. But the Vikings got their guy, and apparently prevented the Texans from getting theirs in the process.