Vikings' Shaq Griffin Signing, Which Could Cost Them a Comp Pick, Still Baffles

Over a month later, the Vikings' decision to sign veteran cornerback Shaquill Griffin to a one-year, $4.55 million deal in late March remains baffling. Not because of anything related to Griffin himself; he's a solid player who fits Brian Flores' scheme and will likely start for Minnesota this year. It was a puzzling move because it appears to have cost the Vikings a third-round compensatory pick in the 2025 draft.

The Vikings were projected to receive a pair of third-round comp picks (which are in the late 90s overall) for losing Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter in free agency this year. At least, that was the case until they signed Griffin. He became the fifth qualifying compensatory free agent (CFA) added by the Vikings, who lost six of them in March. That means that even though Griffin signed for far less than Hunter got to join the Texans, his addition cancelled out the pick the Vikings were set to receive for Hunter's departure.

At the time, the possibility still existed of Dalton Risner signing a qualifying deal with another team, which would've gotten the Vikings back on the right side of the formula to receive a second comp pick. The deadline for that happening has now come and gone. And the Vikings' decision to sign Griffin looks even more bizarre after a draft where they traded up multiple times in the first round, surrendering several of next year's picks in the process. At the moment, the Vikings have just their first-rounder, the Cousins comp pick, and two fifth-rounders in the 2025 draft. That additional comp pick would've helped quite a bit.

Unless the Vikings know something we don't, it's hard to understand why they risked losing such a valuable draft pick like they did. Again, Griffin is a solid player who will help the 2024 Vikings, but this isn't a team that has a realistic path to competing for a championship this year. With Sam Darnold or rookie J.J. McCarthy at quarterback, this appears to be a transitional season for the Vikings, whose over/under win total is just 6.5 at most sportsbooks. A 29-year-old cornerback on a one-year deal is, objectively, not nearly as valuable of an asset as a pick in the 98-100 range that comes with a four-year rookie contract.

The comp pick formula isn't set in stone, but OverTheCap's Nick Korte, who tracks it very closely, is rarely wrong. And he doesn't see how the Vikings can end up getting the Hunter comp pick back unless someone like Josh Dobbs or Oli Udoh plays way more than expected for their new team (playing time is part of the formula). Even if Griffin gets cut, he'd remain in the chart, per the 2020 CBA. It looks like the Vikings simply gambled on Risner signing elsewhere before the draft and lost. Why not wait to see if Griffin would still be available at this point? Or pivot to signing a different corner following the draft? It was a perplexing decision at the time and it's a perplexing decision now.