Vikings use draft to add to QB room, acquiring Sam Howell in trade with Seahawks

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah heavily considered their newest quarterback, Sam Howell, back when he was a draft prospect in 2022.

But the timing wasn’t right. It was their first draft together with the Vikings, and as Adofo-Mensah said Saturday afternoon, “drafting a quarterback’s a marriage.”

“We say a lot that organizations fail quarterbacks long before quarterbacks fail organizations,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We didn’t wanna be one of the reasons why somebody didn’t [work] ‘cause we weren’t ready, we weren’t in the right place to do that type of thing.”

In the end, the pair landed Howell anyway, and at minimal cost: the Vikings acquired him via a trade out of a busy Seahawks quarterback situation that includes former Viking Sam Darnold, Drew Lock and No. 92 overall pick Jalen Milroe. The trade also swapped the Vikings’ No. 142 pick for No. 172 in Saturday’s fifth round.

Howell, 24, joins 22-year-old J.J. McCarthy and 28-year-old Brett Rypien in the Vikings quarterback room as the next QB with the opportunity to learn under O’Connell, who spun Darnold into a first-time Pro Bowler and Comeback Player of the Year nominee last season. The Vikings also added former Gophers QB Max Brosmer as an undrafted free agent Saturday.

Vikings Senior Vice President of Player Personnel Ryan Grigson said Howell’s youth combined with his experience — 18 games as a starter through three seasons — made him an attractive addition.

“It’s an opportunity that’s not usually easy to come by when you have that type of youth, that type of experience already,” Grigson said. “And then we’ve seen what Coach O’Connell can do with quarterbacks. It’s exciting.”

Howell was drafted by the Washington Commanders No. 144 overall (Round 5) in 2022 out of North Carolina, where he threw for 10,283 yards and 92 touchdowns with 23 interceptions.

That volume passing continued into the NFL. He spent his first season behind Carson Wentz and Tyler Heinicke before becoming the Washington starter in 2023.

He attempted a whopping 612 passes, completing 388 (63.4%) for 3,946 yards and 21 touchdowns — but also threw 21 interceptions.

Howell took a beating from opposing defenses through the season, as he was sacked 65 times. It was the second-most in the league that year (the Giants gave up 85), though Pro Football Focus has only 38 listed as sacks allowed by the offensive line.

The Commanders finished 4-13 and traded Howell to the Seahawks in March 2024 alongside a picks swap in that year’s draft. They selected LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels No. 2 overall following the poor 2023 finish and he led them to the NFC Championship game as a rookie.

Howell appeared just twice for Seattle last season.

“Really just another guy to acquire in his quarterback journey in a different point in time now having been in a couple spots,“ O’Connell said during an appearance on NFL Network. ”We still think there’s a lot in Sam’s game to develop and also see where he can take it within our system and within our quarterback development plan.”

The compensatory pick formula seemed to impact the Vikings’ timing in acquiring a backup quarterback, as team brass projected at NFL owner’s meetings in early April they could have three picks awarded next year.

Adofo-Mensah said April 17 it wasn’t driving the timing of the decision but was a factor.

Signing a free agent, the options for which have dwindled significantly, would’ve had to wait until after 3 p.m. Monday to not affect their compensatory picks.

Trading for Howell, who Adofo-Mensah said “was high up on our board” in 2022, has no impact on the compensatory pick formula and likely gets him in the building slightly sooner to begin working with McCarthy and Rypien. The Vikings began their offseason program Monday.

“If the season started today, we’d be fired up about the guys in that room,” Adofo-Mensah said.

The Vikings rostered five quarterbacks at the peak of last season.

With the 142nd pick they received in the trade, the Seahawks selected Notre Dame defensive tackle Rylie Mills. The Vikings later traded the 172nd pick to the Rams for back-to-back selections in the sixth round (Nos. 201 and 202) which they used on Penn State linebacker Kobe King and Pittsburgh tight end Gavin Bartholomew.

Andrew Krammer and Emily Leiker of the Minnesota Star Tribune break down the Vikings 2025 draft class on the Access Vikings podcast: