Getty Patrick Peterson was activated to the 53-man roster just hours before the Vikings' border battle with the Green Bay Packers.
Minnesota Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson could have seen the same fate as last year’s biggest addition to the defense, Pro Bowl edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue.
Floundering at 2-3 entering last Sunday’s must-win game against the Carolina Panthers, the Vikings repeated the dramatics of their walk-off Week 5 win over the Detriot Lions and escaped with a 34-28 overtime victory over the Panthers.
Those two wins have jumpstarted the Vikings season, which was close to heading down the same path as last year’s 1-5 start that led to general manager Rick Spielman trading Ngakoue to the Baltimore Ravens to recover draft capital before the trade deadline.
One NFL analyst spoke with a team executive who penned Peterson as a prime trade candidate had the Vikings not clawed their way back to .500 entering the bye week.
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‘Peterson, a Classic Ravens-Type Add’
The Athletic’s Mike Sando took inventory of which teams are buyers and sellers approaching this year’s November 2 trade deadline.
He penned the Ravens as a buyer in need of a cornerback, which the Vikings have a spare with trade speculation circling Cameron Dantzler earlier this season.
Sando speculated that if the Vikings didn’t turn around their season after an 0-3 start, the team would likely have a fire sale with the franchise’s future in flux. Sando spoke with an NFL executive who called Peterson a “classic Ravens-type add.”
However, the Vikings winning and Peterson suffering a hamstring injury has likely killed any chances of a trade for the veteran cornerback.
From Sando:
A corner for Baltimore? The Ravens are 5-1 and appear happy with the development of their young pass rushers. They still could use a cornerback after losing Marcus Peters to a season-ending injury. If the Vikings had lost Sunday, I wondered if Patrick Peterson might have been a good fit for Baltimore. One exec loved the fit, calling Peterson a classic Ravens-type add, but with Minnesota winning and Peterson suffering an injury Sunday, that seems like a stretch.
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Vikings Stuck at Trade Deadline
The possibility of Peterson being traded is likely a forgone matter. However, Sando’s report did shine a light on the state of the Vikings ahead of the trade deadline.
The Vikings have yet to cement an identity as a contender or a sinking team. After allowing the Lions and Panthers to claw back into games, it feels like this team could win or lose to any team each week.
With Mike Zimmer coaching to keep his job and Kirk Cousins financially tied to the team for another season, the team doesn’t have many assets they can afford to give away for draft capital. Both team leaders are fighting to secure their futures with the franchise.
“Take Minnesota,” an executive told Sando, who speculated whether the Vikings should look for a future franchise quarterback in the draft if they lost to the Dallas Cowboys coming out of the bye week.
“Can they? No,” the executive said. “Should they? Yes.”
The Vikings did draft third-round quarterback Kellen Mond as the potential successor to Cousins. However, that decision to draft an early-round quarterback came from a “strong recommendation” by the Wilf family — not Rick Spielman.
Until Mond is ready to assert himself as a starting NFL quarterback, he’s merely the franchise’s safety net if the quarterback situation goes awry.