Charley Walters: Time is now for Vikings to get a franchise quarterback

Longtime New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft, asked at the recent NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla., if he would like to see a quarterback taken with his team’s No. 3 pick in the upcoming draft, said teams can’t win consistently unless you have a “first-rate quarterback and a first-rate coach.”

The Vikings have Nos. 11 and 23 picks in the April 25-27 draft. The Patriots do not have a first-rate QB. The Vikings also do not have a first-rate quarterback — Sam Darnold is a one-year placeholder.

The Vikings know they have to move up to draft an elite QB. But everybody else knows it, too.

Minimally, the Vikings probably need to shoot up to No. 4 in the draft to get either of QBs Drake Maye of North Carolina or J.J. McCarthy of Michigan. It’s likely the Vikings would take either.

If they can’t get either, this offseason should be considered a failure, regardless of what else the team might do.

To get to No. 3 to take Maye or No. 4 to take McCarthy, the Vikings, besides Nos. 11 and 23, might also have to give up their first-round pick in 2025. For a team that’s expected to finish last in its division in 2024, that could be a high pick.

The 2025 quarterback draft class is considered weak.

The Vikings in February telegraphed that they planned to draft a QB when they hired veteran NFL QB Josh McCown as QB coach, then three weeks ago traded with Houston for the No. 23 pick in the draft. Remember that McCown, in 2021 per the Pioneer Press, was critical of Kirk Cousins for not getting COVID-19 vaccinated, suggesting that could affect his leadership among players.

Three weeks ago, Cousins left the Vikings for the Falcons. It was clear Cousins and McCown would not have had an easy relationship.

Anyone who thinks the Vikings would use two first-round draft picks on QB Michael Penix, who turns 24 next month and already has had two ACL right knee surgeries, a shoulder surgery besides another shoulder injury, is hallucinating.

The Vikings’ over-under victory total for next season is 6½, per sportsbetting.ag. It’s 10 victories for the Packers, 10½ for the Lions and 8½ for the Bears.

Last season’s projected Vikings victory total was 8½; the team won seven games.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told USA Today of the mega-priced team the Twins host Monday through Wednesday, “If we don’t win the World Series, I think we’ll all feel we’ve failed.”

The Dodgers are valued at $5.45 billion by Forbes, the Twins $1.46 billion, the Yankees (No. 1) $7.55 billion.

Simley grad Michael Busch has made the Chicago Cubs’ major league roster and is hitting .316 with a home run after seven games.

Ex-Twins free agent Miguel Sano, 30, despite batting .186 in spring training, made the Los Angeles Angels’ major league roster and is hitting .267 after five games with six strikeouts in 15 at-bats. He’s listed at 260 pounds. For the Twins, he was listed at 271 pounds.

Tom Lehman, who turned 65 a month ago, underwent a left knee replacement last year but is back walking on the PGA Champions tour. He shot 71-71-77 to win $4,620 at last weekend’s Galleri Classic at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, Calif. As a senior tour player, he has an option to ride an electric cart in competition but declines.

The former Gopher said he intends to play the rest of the year on the Champions Tour, then decide on his playing future.

“You don’t get any better if you don’t play,” he said.

Lehman, whose daughter Holly caddied for him at Mission Hills, is also busy with several course design projects across the country. Among sponsorship endorsements is Tommy Bahama.

Lehman’s brother Jim, a plus-1 handicapper out of Windsong Farm, last week played in the Golfweek National Senior Championship at Desert Willow near Mission Hills, finishing tied for 16th with scores of 73-74-73, four-over-par. In a national senior tournament in February in Florida, Jim Lehman shot one-under-par for 54 holes to finish fourth. He has no aspirations for the Champions Tour.

Darren Clarke captained the European Ryder Cup team that in 2016 lost to the United States at Hazeltine National in Chaska. Last week, Clarke, playing in the Galleri Classic, recalled his team’s loss and credited the Americans.

“The (Hazeltine) crowds were perfectly partisan towards the American team, which they should be — that’s what you want from the homeland,” Clarke said. “The crowds were fine to us. Whenever we as Europeans hit good shots, they applauded us. They did everything the right way.

“Obviously I’ve got mixed emotions — we lost. But c’est la vie. We got outplayed by a team that played better than we did.

“Hazeltine’s an unbelievable golf course, one of the best in the world. I’ve played a few majors there, and it really is a fabulous venue.”

Hazeltine will host the U.S. Men’s Amateur tournament Aug. 12-18, the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the 2029 Ryder Cup.
“It will be equally as exciting,” Clarke said.

In order to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Amateur, golfers must have a handicap index not exceeding 0.4.

It was 15 years ago that Y.E. Yang upset Tiger Woods to win the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine. Yang, now 52, last weekend finished in a tie for sixth in the Galleri Classic.

“It was unbelievable, my greatest victory in golf, No. 1,” Yang recalled of his victory at Hazeltine. “I really liked the shape of Hazeltine.”

Deephaven’s Tim Herron, 54, who’s about to return to the PGA Champions tour after a third surgery on his right hand last December, has played in nine Masters tournaments at Augusta National.

About the pristine condition of the storied course, which this week hosts the 88th Masters, Herron noted the bunkers.

“The bunkers are immaculate,” he said. “I think they actually use crushed marble in their bunkers. It’s really heavy. In the nine times I’ve played there, I’ve only seen one ball buried. The ball hits, and it doesn’t bury.”

The Mauer brothers — Joe, Billy and Jake— will represent the baseball class for the sold-out May 13 St. Paul Mancini’s Sports Hall of Fame at the Char House. For basketball, Jerry Kline; hockey, Brad Buetow; football, Bart Buetow and Bob Nicosia; boxing, Bob Hill, and special award, Tony Ruiz.

It’s a sixth and final Ballpark Tours Hall of Fame trek to Cooperstown, N.Y., for Joe Mauer’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction July 17-22.

Condolences to the family of Eric Dornfeld, the former Stillwater hockey star and Gophers co-captain who died the other day at age 59 from cancer.

A celebration of life for former Gophers-Packers star Jim Carter, who died from cancer at age 75 in November, will be June 10 at ex-hockey Gopher Ron Peltier’s “7 Vines Vineyard” in Dellwood.

Meanwhile, a movement continues to have South St. Paul High School’s football stadium named after Carter, a venue where he starred as a prep and privately was a proud and significant benefactor to the school. Lou Nanne, who coached Carter as a Gophers hockey freshman, said Carter probably would have been a NHL player had he chosen that sport.

Nanne, by the way, on Friday was spotted eating breakfast at the Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert, Calif.

In time for the Stanley Cup playoffs, sportswriter Kevin Allenspach has his deep and entertaining tome of the 1990-91 North Stars, “Mirage of Destiny” by North Star Press of St. Cloud on the market.

The Twins will defeat Seattle in the American League wild card round, then lose to the New York Yankees in the division series, predicts Sports Illustrated.

Packy Mader’s free admission Minnesota Athletes Celebration featuring local, national and former Olympic notables is Sunday from noon-3 p.m. at Braemar Golf Club in Edina.

— Pssst: That was Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence landing in Minneapolis from Jacksonville last Thursday evening. He exited the jet but didn’t enter the concourse, rather heading down to the tarmac where he got into a chauffeured black SUV and left the airport.

Lawrence, 24, is in prolonged contract extension talks with the Jaguars. He can become an unrestricted free agent after the 2025 season.

It’s doubtful Justin Jefferson will show up for Vikings mandatory mini-camps in June if he still hasn’t signed a contract extension.

Don’t think Eric Musselman, who last week accepted the Southern California men’s basketball head coaching job, wouldn’t have seriously considered Minnesota if the Gophers had shown interest.

Now that USC is in the Big Ten, it will be an emotional visit for Musselman, now 59, when the Trojans play at Williams Arena, where as a youngster he occasionally partook in the legendary Harlem Globetrotter-themed pregame shows when his father, Bill, coached the Gophers.

Among names mentioned for Musselman’s vacant Arkansas job, which paid Eric $4.2 million this season, is Bloomington Jefferson-Minnesota grad Brian Dutcher of San Diego State.

No one should doubt Glen Taylor’s resolve in the Alex Rodriguez-Marc Lore Timberwolves-Lynx sale saga. Taylor, a former chairman of the NBA’s board of directors, is well respected by the league, and regardless of a legal outcome, it’ll be interesting whether the league will approve the sale.

It will be fascinating how the Taylor-Rodriguez-Lore conflict plays out. One guess is that Taylor could agree to buy back the $600 million Rodriguez-Lore and partners have invested, and maybe pay even more as the value of the Wolves has significantly escalated, just to get the pair and their 36 percent to go away.

At this point, Taylor, who turns 83 in two weeks, also has to decide how much longer he wants to own the team or whether he sells it to someone else with more resources than Rodriguez-Lore.

There was a time, nearly three years ago, that Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf were interested in buying the Timberwolves. The Wilfs, unlike predecessor Red McCombs, were able to get U.S. Bank Stadium built, and have the wherewithal to build a replacement for Target Center on land at their Vikings’ Eagan-based headquarters.

It’s unclear, though, whether Taylor would sell to the Wilfs, who nine years ago lost out on a Major League Soccer franchise in St. Paul to a partnership led by Bill McGuire that included Taylor and the Pohlad family.

It was five years ago that Rodriguez tried to buy the New York Mets, but that proposition fell apart after his split with girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and her wealth of a reported $400 million.

A collapse of the Rodriguez-Lore Wolves-Lynx deal would mean no front office entry for Kevin Garnett and jersey retirement at Target Center.

Gophers freshman basketball guard Cam Christie, 18, has an outside chance to be a late first-round pick in June’s NBA draft, which would mean a guaranteed two-year contract in the $4 million range even though he would spend his first professional season in the G League. A first-round pick is unlikely, though.

If Christie enters the NCAA transfer portal, he could land a NIL deal worth $50,000 a month.

Pharrell Payne, who has entered the transfer portal, is expected to get a NIL pact worth about $20,000 a month over 10 months.

Caleb Williams, who scored 41 points for Division III Macalester against the Gophers in an early season exhibition game and has entered the NCAA portal, of late has been chatting with Hawaii and Siena for his final college season.

As for NIL riches, Williams said Friday, “It’s definitely not my biggest priority, if that makes sense. In D-III, we have to pay for college, so just being on scholarship will be a nice change of pace.”

Had 6-foot-11 Dawson Garcia, who is returning to the Gophers, opted for the NCAA transfer portal and been approved, he would have played for four different schools in five years.

On the increased value of football wide receivers, ex-Vikings receiver Cris Carter recently told Front Office Sports that when he used to coach football camps, about 50 out of 100 kids wanted to be quarterbacks. Now, 50 out of 100 want to be wide receivers.

The Wild’s 25-year Xcel Energy Center arena naming rights deal, worth $3 million annually, is about to expire.

It was 40 years ago on April 7 that St.Paul’s Jack Morris of the Detroit Tigers, then 28, in the fourth game of the season, threw 120 pitches in no-hitting the White Sox 4-0 on national TV in Chicago.

“It wasn’t Picasso, but it might have been a Rockwell,” home plate umpire Durwood Merrill told the Detroit Free Press.

October 20 is the birthday of two splendid, career injury-hampered, athletes, Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers from Hopkins and Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees.

Ex-Wld left wing Kevin Fiala, 27, leads the Los Angeles Kings in points (26 goals, 42 assists) with 68. Ex-Wild center Charlie Coyle, 32, has 57 points (24 goals, 33 assists) for the Boston Bruins, third-most on the team.

In 25 games for the Colorado Avalanche, ex-Wild left wing Zach Parise, 39, has four goals and five assists.

Mike Veeck, the former St. Paul Saints co-owner, and not-funny comedian Bill Murray have purchased a minor league team in Joliet, Ill., with Veeck’s son directing marketing. The Frontier League team opens the season next month.

Veeck also has invested in the Northern Ireland Larne FC soccer team.