When Minnesota started 1-5 it seemed reasonable to think that a fire sale before the trade deadline was imminent.
Despite that, the Vikings only traded DE Yannick Ngakoue and ended up re-entering the playoff conversation. But the slow start raised an interesting question: How good are the Vikings’ trade assets?
Bleacher Report recently ranked each NFL team in order of how good its trade chips are. Minnesota came in 12th on that list. Some names to consider are Kyle Rudolph, Harrison Smith, Anthony Barr, Riley Reiff and Adam Thielen, based on them being veterans and their contracts being large.
Minnesota could potentially be looking at a tough cap situation for 2021. That may lead to the Vikings dumping contracts, even if the players are good. That can be a hard thing to accept for a team that appears to be in a playoff window. However, the Vikings could always ship off assets and acquire better ones in advance. If it comes to that, at least Minnesota has good assets to give up.