It's hard to ignore the Brendan Sorsby intrigue
The former Cincinnati QB is entering the Supplemental Draft and one former NFL GM suggested the Vikings take a swing
By Matthew Coller
The history of the Supplemental Draft is fascinating.
Once upon a time, the Minnesota Vikings thought they were going to land Bernie Kosar and then the Cleveland Browns made a trade to acquire the top pick in the Supplemental Draft and Kosar went on to become a Cleveland legend.
The Dallas Cowboys famously used a first-round Supplemental Draft pick to get Steve Walsh despite already having Troy Aikman as their starting QB.
Cris Carter was a Supplemental Draft pick after he was deemed ineligible to play his final college season after he signed with an agent.
The Supplemental Draft, which was created in 1977, doesn’t often come into play because very few players fit the rules. It only applies to players who college players that were not in the draft and then lost eligibility to play in the following college season for whatever reason.
The last time the NFL held a Supplemental Draft was in 2019 when the Arizona Cardinals selected safety Jalen Thompson.
This year there is a very good chance that we see another player picked.
After quarterback Brendan Sorsby was suspended by the NCAA following an investigation into thousands of bets that he made, including on his own team, he has elected to enter the Supplemental Draft, which will take place next month.
When I saw a tweet from ESPN’s Kevin Seifert about former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum suggesting the Minnesota Vikings should get in the mix on Sorsby, my initial thought was: Seriously?
Seifert responded by wondering if the organization has enough “bandwidth” to bring in another quarterback considering they are already in the midst of a quarterback competition between Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy.
But that shouldn’t totally preclude the Vikings from looking into Sorsby, right? Presumably the former Cincinnati quarterback would not be part of a competition right away and would take on a developmental position as he looks to build on a strong 2025 season and take the steps forward that he’s missing by not playing college football this year.
Is it actually a good idea for the Vikings to bid a draft pick?
If we just start talking out the pros and cons and the arguments for and against, there might be a stronger argument for trying to get Sorsby than ignoring him.
That argument begins with the year 2027.
As of this date, we have zero idea who the Vikings quarterback is going to be in 2027. If you had to guess, you would probably say Kyler Murray because it’s easiest to see him winning the QB competition, having relative success and then signing a short-term contract like Daniel Jones.
There’s also a chance that JJ McCarthy could beat out Murray for the starting job and then get back on the track he was expected to take when the Vikings selected him with the 10th overall pick in 2024.
Those outcomes, however, are far from guarantees. If Murray is just OK and goes 9-8 with a middling performance, then what? If McCarthy can’t win the job and doesn’t show much sign of progress, then what?
The probability of the Vikings going into 2027 with no idea who their quarterback is going to be is halfway decent. Maybe you’d guess at this moment that it’s a 50-50 shot.
Why wouldn’t they exhaust all options? There are all sorts of unexpected ways that teams have landed their quarterbacks. The Seattle Seahawks won their two Super Bowls with a third-round pick and with another QB who had very little interest in free agency. The San Francisco 49ers are a perpetual contender with Mr. Irrelevant. Dak Prescott went in the same round as Cardale Jones. Have you heard that Tom Brady was a sixth-round pick?
The quarterback position may be dominated by first-round picks but it’s also still a mystery.
Who are the Vikings to ignore anyone who has a chance to become a quality starting quarterback? This organization’s track record at the position doesn’t exactly scream “be picky!”
Since Fran Tarkenton, they have struggled to find someone who can start at the position over a long period of time and allow the front office to build around them/ It’s always chasing, chasing, chasing.
That doesn’t mean that putting in a bid for Sorsby would have high odds of landing the Vikings the next Fran Tarkenton but their mentality should be: Until you have The Guy, you need to be searching in every area under the sun to find The Guy.
Not that the Vikings deserve any benefit of the doubt after the moment, having had The Guy in their building and watched him throw for 4,300 yards only to let him walk away but whether they decide to get in on the Sorsby auction should be based on how good they think he could be.
NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein graded him as having the potential to become an average starter. Dane Brugler said that if he was a lock first-round talent he would already be in the NFL.
Fair enough. But his numbers from last season were really good. He struggled with accuracy at times but graded by PFF as a top-10 quarterback and was elite at avoiding Turnover-Worthy plays and taking sacks.
Not to mention that he’s 6-foot-3, 235 pounds and ran for 522 yards and nine touchdowns last year.
I’m not sure that sounds like someone who should be ignored.
Of course, we also can’t ignore the downside. The Vikings would have to determine what level draft pick they were willing to give up and whether that had any chance to actually land Sorsby’s services. A fifth? Fourth? There are teams like Arizona or Cleveland who are much more desperate than that.
Since they have an additional third-round pick next year, would that be the line of demarcation?
That would depend on whether they have concerns about the issues with gambling. Certainly there are much worse things that football players have done and still ended up on the field contributing but the NFL will not tolerate players pushing the boundaries on gambling. We have already seen that from Isaiah Rodgers and Jameson Williams’ suspensions.
They have to ask themselves: What if the guy becomes the starting QB and then suddenly has this problem again and the team is left up a creek?
Sorsby has been receiving treatment for his gambling addiction but it’s something that would always be in the back of everyone’s mind.
What would his path to the field be? How could the Vikings work closely enough with him to develop him for 2026 in order to make any argument that he could be their starter in 2027? Wouldn’t it have to be more of a plan to have him work in the background this year and then be the backup QB next year and maybe sometime somewhere he ends up getting a chance? Is that worth giving up a top-100 pick for?
Maybe it is, even for the 5% chance that he ends up becoming the franchise quarterback this team has been dreaming about forever.
In all likelihood, a woebegone franchise will give Sorsby a shot by using a higher draft pick and then we’ll all see how it turns out. The Vikings shouldn’t be scrutinized if they don’t get involved because it would be a lot of attention and require man power that they can’t dedicate right now.
At the same time, if Sorsby gets picked by somebody like the Steelers with a third-round pick and then becomes a star quarterback, we might again be bemoaning that the Vikings coulda, woulda, shoulda with the QB position.
I wouldn't touch him with a 50 foot longboat oar. Imagine this QB room:
An athletic midget with good arm talent but questionable study and mental aspects of the game and a play style which cannot be dismissed.
A young relatively inexperienced highly motivated kid just learning the nuances of the pro game which still needs work.
Some raw kid who has demonstrated off field gambling problems.
Frankly IMO the gambling thing within the NFL is chock full of hypocrisy.
NFL Report brought to you by Fan Duel or whatever.
Some team is going to take a chance, might as well be the Vikings. Sports betting is so much fun, of course young players are going to try it. Average fans think they know more than the sports books. Imagine how much more the people who play the game know. Fasten your seatbelts!