The Minnesota Vikings will enter the 2025 NFL Draft without a backup quarterback on the roster, and that’s led to increased speculation on the team’s potential interest in drafting a QB for the second consecutive season.
J.J. McCarthy is set to enter Minnesota’s offseason program as the clear-cut starter. Could the team bring in a familiar face from the nearby University of Minnesota to compete for the Vikings’ vacant QB2 job?
Bill Bender of The Sporting News recently projected former Gophers starting quarterback Max Brosmer to the Vikings in Round 6 of the 2025 NFL Draft. Here was his take on what would be a fun, if not puzzling move to address the team’s lack of depth behind McCarthy:
Brosmer (6-2, 217) is an intriguing deep sleeper given his college experience. Brosmer tore his ACL in 2021 at New Hampshire, but he returned and he averaged 3,309 passing yards, 28 TDs and six interceptions the next two seasons. He had 2,928 yards, 18 TDs and six interceptions in one season with Minnesota. He was 42 of 63 (66.7%) and averaged 216.5 yards with two TDs and two interceptions against elite defenses at Michigan and Penn State. He’s also one of the better intermediate passers in the draft. He makes sense as a close-to-home fit for the Vikings and coach Kevin O’Connell. The Vikings don’t have a seventh-round pick, so if not here it is possible Brosmer falls to the seventh round or is one of the top free-agent pickups.
As Gophers coach P.J. Fleck would say, Brosmer would be an elite pick for the Vikings at No. 187 overall. Fleck called his QB “one of the most special people I’ve ever been around,” and a “perfect marriage” for his team’s offense, per the Star Tribune. The Vikings hosted Brosmer for a pre-draft workout, so there could be some mutual interest here.
NFL teams routinely take fliers on quarterbacks in the final two rounds of the draft, with Joe Milton (6th round to Patriots), Devin Leary (6th round to Ravens) and Michael Pratt (7th round to Packers) the latest examples in 2024. Savvy executives attempt to stockpile late-round QBs with an eye on developing and flipping them for a profit down the road.
That strategy doesn’t make much sense for a team like Minnesota, though, as the team currently holds a league-low four selections in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Vikings own one sixth-round pick and no current selections in the seventh round. They simply don’t have enough darts this year to take a flier on Brosmer, who started his college career at FCS New Hampshire before transferring to Minnesota and leading the Gophers to an eight-win season in 2024.
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The Vikings are a top trade-back candidate in this draft, so they could certainly add additional Day 3 capital to make a pick like this more palatable. But a sixth-round pick on Brosmer feels too rich for a player who could be available to the team as an undrafted free agent.
That’s probably where Minnesota should target Brosmer. Drafting him wouldn’t solve the team’s QB2 problem, as a proven veteran would still need to be added as McCarthy’s backup after draft weekend. Brosmer would be competing with Brett Rypien as a potential practice-squad, emergency QB3 type prospect in 2025.
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