Minnesota Vikings Week 18 Practice Squad Elevations Curiously Elude New QB…

The Minnesota Vikings play the final game of their 2024 regular season on Sunday Night Football against the Detroit Lions. It’s widely considered to have more on the line — NFC North crown, No. 1 seed in NFC (which includes a 1st round bye and home field advantage thru NFCCG — than any regular season game in Vikings history.

Minnesota Vikings practice squad elevations for week 18 vs Lions

Normally, with a mostly healthy roster and no chance any able player would think about sitting out, practice elevations on the day before the game would be less than noteworthy. But for the Vikings, in week 18, there were deeper-reaching implications in today’s otherwise normal press release announcing the elevation of practice squad players (LB) Calvin Munson and (OLB) Gabriel Murphy.

The #Vikings have elevated LB Calvin Munson and OLB Gabriel Murphy to the active roster for tomorrow's game. pic.twitter.com/lYp2ryrush

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) January 4, 2025

That’s because neither of those names are Daniel Jones, who the Minnesota Vikings signed to their practice squad a few weeks ago, after he was cut by the New York Giants. Why is this important? More than likely, Jones is going to sign a contract this offseason that will make him eligible for his new and old team’s compensation pick formula.

Why the Vikings need to elevate Daniel Jones to the active roster

When teams lose a good player to free agency, he can fetch them as high as a (end of) 3rd round comp pick. Every offseason, each team has their free agent losses and gains calculated. For those organizations that lose more than they gain, they will receive compensatory pick(s) based on that gain/loss formula.

Well, if the Minnesota Vikings activate Daniel Jones to their 53-man roster sometime this season, and then he signs elsewhere in the offseason, he would count as a loss for the Vikings in their comp pick formula. If he remains on the practice squad, and never gets elevated to the active roster, he will not count toward that formula.

Related: Minnesota Vikings Defense Rankings

Being Jones is a QB, he could even fetch a day-two pick for 2026. Being this is the regular season finally, many believed Jones’ activation would come today… but it didn’t. Why not? ESPN’s Kevin Seifert believes it’s because the Vikings are a cinch playoff team.

The Minnesota Vikings still have time…

According to Seifert’s information, Minnesota could activate Daniel Jones for a playoff game, and he would still count toward the comp pick formula. Yes, it’s believed that the 27-year-old former 1st round pick is going to be back with the Vikings next season. That’s why he signed here.

Vikings did not add QB Daniel Jones to their 53-man roster for Week 18, but they could do it during the playoffs and still have him count in their compensatory draft pick formula. https://t.co/L5ozTXOSSs

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) January 4, 2025

Still, it makes zero sense not to secure that compensation pick, just in case. I’m not even sure why the Vikings are waiting this long. It’s always possible he has a freak injury or something else happens that makes them unable to activate him.

Related: Minnesota Vikings Get Mostly Clean Bill of Health in Final Week 18 Injury Report

Nonetheless, because there is no logical reason not to activate him at some point, I still expect Daniel Jones to be on the active roster during the postseason, maybe as soon as next week, if the Vikings were to fall to the Lions this weekend.