{"id":27454,"date":"2025-05-06T04:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/27454\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T04:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:28:11","slug":"the-vikings-should-make-a-blockbuster-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/27454\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vikings Should Make a Blockbuster Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"Oct 31, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner (1) runs onto the field in a Michael Myers mask before the first half of their game against the Houston Texans at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Vikings decided not to use a single draft selection during the 2025 NFL Draft on the cornerback position, instead opting to come to agreements with two undrafted free agents<\/a> in Kansas State\u2019s Keenan Garber and Utah\u2019s Zemaiah Vaughn. Of course, these Vikings chose to re-up on Byron Murphy Jr.\u2019s services with a big-time contract extension, as well as sign free agent Isaiah Rodgers, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts and the Philadelphia Eagles. <\/p>\n

Cornerback was probably the position that most of the NFL community had the Vikings taking in their mock drafts, along with the defensive interior line and safety. Minnesota obviously did not decide to go that route, taking Ohio State guard Donovan Jackson<\/a> with the 24th overall selection. <\/p>\n

\"vikings\"Ohio State Buckeyes offensive lineman Donovan Jackson (74) celebrates a touchdown by TreVeyon Henderson during the NCAA football game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. Ohio State won 38-15.<\/p>\n

This was more out of left field than not, seeing as Texas CB Jahdae Barron (besides two-way star Travis Hunter) was the only player at the position to be drafted before Minnesota had the chance to take a swing at one. Popular Vikings mock draftees like Will Johnson and Shavon Revel Jr. fell out of the first round altogether.<\/p>\n

The vastly more likely scenario as opposed to a trade with the New York Jets for an all-world corner like Ahmad \u201cSauce\u201d Gardner is that the Vikings will instead opt to sign a still-available veteran<\/a> free agent, like Rasul Douglas, Mike Hilton, or Asante Samuel Jr. Either way, reckless speculation is incredibly fun, and the rumors regarding a Vikings and Gardner marriage aren\u2019t exactly new.<\/p>\n

\"\"New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner (1) hauls in an interception against Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Parker Washington (11) during the fourth quarter Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jets held off the Jaguars 32-25. [Corey Perrine\/Florida Times-Union]<\/p>\n

Take into account that the Jets are kind of a sinking ship, which isn\u2019t exactly new either. In fact, that news is quite old. The New York Football Jets will go into 2025 with Justin Fields as their starting QB, and as Vikings fans know and tried to convince Chicago Bears fans for years, it isn\u2019t really the most optimal course of action. To be fair, there are worse options, and the Jets believe they have something in Fields, hence why they brought him in on a two-year contractual agreement.<\/p>\n

The more important fact of the matter is that the owner of the franchise is Woody Johnson, who hasn\u2019t exactly made the best football operational decisions in his tenure as the face of the place. While this works as an argument for the Vikings to trade for Gardner if he were to want out because he doesn\u2019t trust the long-term vision of the team, it also plays into their hands because trading Gardner in itself is not a good operational decision that can\u2019t be put past Johnson.<\/p>\n

\"\"Oct 6, 2024; London, United Kingdom; Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell (left) talks with New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner (1) after the game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The man who could potentially stop that is new New York Jets HC Aaron Glenn, with whom Vikings fans are also very familiar. Glenn was in charge of the Detroit Lions\u2019 defensive operation from 2021 to 2024, and also played cornerback, Gardner\u2019s position, for the New York Jets from 1994 to 2001. This is Glenn\u2019s first year as a coach in the Big Apple, and it has to be assumed that he is standing on the table and possibly even desperate to keep Sauce Gardner in Jets green.<\/p>\n

Still, while head coaches play a large part in personnel decisions, the decisions are still technically above him, and if owner Johnson and general manager Darren Mougey value the bountiful future-dated draft capital that they could receive from the Vikings over just one player, albeit a very good player, then it\u2019s out of the head coach\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s hard to think that a GM in his first year would execute a trade where they\u2019re sending away one of the best players in the league at his position, but if the Vikings\u2019 offer is rich enough, or if Johnson interferes in the decision-making process, it\u2019s not crazy to think it could happen.<\/p>\n

\"NFL:Dec 19, 2021; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn during the third quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

Also, for what it\u2019s worth, we do live in a world where three months ago, a 25-year-old Luka Doncic got traded for an injury-prone 32-year-old and a bag of Planters peanuts.<\/p>\n

Now, what would the trade cost the Vikings? A whole lot. The negotiations begin with a first-round pick in 2026 and some supporting mid-to-late round draft capital to be generous. The Vikings also would be taking on a large cap number now and down the road, and are already paying Byron Murphy Jr. a ton of money at a position that Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has already shown he doesn\u2019t exactly view as a \u201cpremium position\u201d with the lack of draft capital spent in the last two years. <\/p>\n

But thinking about that is not nearly as fun as seeing Sauce Gardner in purple in a Brian Flores defense, now is it?<\/p>\n

\"Vikings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oct 31, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner (1) runs onto the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,2529,6,7536,234,5375],"class_list":{"0":"post-27454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-vikings","11":"tag-minnesotavikings","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-sauce-gardner","14":"tag-vikings","15":"tag-vikings-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114459004635569373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}