Vikings Meeting Jayden Daniels for Dinner Tonight

The NFL Draft is officially one week away, so teams across the league are finishing up their evaluation processes and making final preparations for all possible scenarios next Thursday night.

For the Minnesota Vikings, that includes a 1v1 dinner with Jayden Daniels tonight in Baton Rouge, according to “one of us” Tom Pelissero (NFL Network. It’s believed to be the first time head coach Kevin O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have met with Daniels since the scouting combine in February.

Former LSU QB Jayden Daniels is scheduled to have dinner tonight with #Vikings brass in Baton Rouge, per @Agentbutler1.

Minnesota owns the No. 11 and 23 picks and has been gathering all the info in case there’s an opportunity to move up for one of the top QBs. pic.twitter.com/BHdk4nyOIQ

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 18, 2024

What does this mean? Well, it looks like tonight’s dinner is the meeting/workout that was first reported last week. Darren Wolfson (KSTP, SKOR North) tweeted back then that Daniels’ meeting would take place today.

What does Minnesota Vikings’ dinner with Jayden Daniels mean?

If this is indeed the first time Minnesota has met with Jayden Daniels in months, it would put his evaluation a great deal behind the prospects that O’Connell and Kwesi were able to get extended workouts with.

JJ McCarthy, Drake Maye, Bo Nix and Michael Penix all spent extensive time with Kevin O’Connell as he got the opportunity to know them better and work each of them out individually. That’s quite the contrast from Jayden’s one-night dinner reservations.

Does that mean the Vikings won’t be interested in Daniels on draft night? No. Jayden has been mostly seen as a lock to the Washington Commanders at No. 2 overall, for months. So, in reality, landing Daniels has always been unlikely. But… there have been some rumors lately that the Commanders may not be sold on Jayden at No. 2.

The Commanders kicked off their mass 30 visit tonight by taking the draft prospects—including Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix and JJ McCarthy—to Topgolf for a casual dinner/mixer. More than 20 potential draftees in town, and they'll all be at the facility tomorrow.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) April 17, 2024

If Washington passes on Daniels… just about every mock draft that’s been produced, to this point, would be blown to hell. In that scenario, do the Vikings like the LSU QB enough to jump up to No. 3 or No. 4 (without a private workout), in order to draft him ahead of McCarthy or Maye (whichever QB is still available with him), who they did get a private workout with?

Related: Jeremiah: J.J. McCarthy Could Fall if Vikings Let Him

Minnesota’s intrigue with Jayden Daniels would reach the ultimate test if the Commanders pass on him. Then, it would be interesting to find out how much KOC and Kwesi trust the evaluations they’ve built, outside of private workouts.

Would they opt for one of the guys that they spent more time with, and actually got to work out? Or, do they like Daniels so much that they’d risk their future on him, even though they haven’t been able to get to know him the same way the have other top QBs in this draft?