In a move that slid under the national radar on Friday night, the Minnesota Vikings quietly traded away one of their best defensive players for relative pennies on the dollar in return.
The Vikings dealt Pro Bowl EDGE Za’Darius Smith to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for draft pick swaps in 2024 and 2025. The Browns gave up a fifth-round pick each year in exchange for Smith, a 6th-round pick and a seventh-rounder in 2025.
The deal removes Smith and his 10 sacks from a Vikings defense that struggled to rush the passer consistently in 2022. Smith, 30, was due $9.45 million in salary in 2023 and another $14.45 million in 2024, figures the Vikings would have really struggled to afford. The veteran had earlier asked for either a trade or a release.
Minnesota signed Marcus Davenport from the Saints in the offseason to a big free agent deal to help bolster a pass rush that was almost exclusively Smith and Danielle Hunter (10.5 sacks) for Minnesota last year. Smith has 36 sacks in his last three full seasons, missing all but one game of the 2021 season with injury. He played for the Packers in 2019-2021.