The Minnesota Vikings may boast a pristine 5-0 record, but their 27th-ranked offense deserves little credit for their success.
While they’ve found some success on the ground, their passing game has struggled mightily to take flight. Quarterback Kyler Murray stumbled out of the gates while learning the ropes of Kevin O’Connell’s offense.
Things began to click in the team’s 23-13 win over the Saints on Sunday, but they’ll have to string together a few solid performances before the issues can be considered solved.
Aside from the quarterback position, the most glaring issue has been the play of their interior offensive line after left guard Donovan Jackson landed on Injured Reserve with a torn meniscus in their Week 4 win against the Dolphins. Joe Huber took over for him and struggled to hold up against New Orleans, allowing two sacks and finishing with a 55.2 grade by Pro Football Focus.
Purple Daily‘s Phil Mackey thinks that’s an area the Vikings could look to improve on the trade market. He believes they should be all-in on Colts eight-time Pro Bowl guard Quenton Nelson, who is entering the final year of his deal in Indianapolis.
“So you’d be acquiring a rental player, and then I think part of the deal is you’d want to lock him up to an extension obviously,” Mackey said. “Assuming that you’re going to pay him as a top five guard going forward, I would give up a Day 2 pick for Quenton Nelson.
Quenton Nelson Would Be A Massive Boost For The Offensive Line
Nelson may now be on the wrong side of 30, but he’s still playing at an elite level. He’s the premier guard of this generation and is a surefire future Hall of Famer.
Even with everything else falling apart around them, he and Jonathan Taylor have been models of consistency for Indianapolis. It’s difficult to envision a scenario where they’d ship him out of town. However, they might not want to allocate assets to pay an aging guard, no matter how incredible and dependable he’s been.
For the Vikings, he’d immediately shore up the offensive line in the wake of Jackson’s injury. He’d turn what has suddenly become a weakness into a major strength.
The Vikings Have A Lot Of In-House Re-Sign Candidates To Consider
The Minnesota Vikings are expected to be buyers at the trade deadline. Conversely, with the Colts sitting at 2-3, many believe they could be sellers, especially if they hope to recoup some of the picks they lost in last season’s Sauce Gardner blockbuster.
However, trading for Nelson might not be in the Vikings’ best interest, even if a second-round pick would be a good price to get him into the building. The move would make a lot more sense for a team that has wide-ranging issues up front. Minnesota’s struggles are only from losing Jackson, and they’ll obviously be invested in him bouncing back strong.
The Vikings have a lot of cap space to burn without a QB under contract for 2027 and beyond, but they also have many re-sign candidates on the horizon. Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Isaiah Rodgers, T.J. Hockenson, Jalen Redmond, Kyler Murray, Jordan Mason, Byron Murphy, and Aaron Jones Sr. are all playing out the final year of their deals.
Minnesota has enough decisions to make there, and they don’t need to add any other rentals into the fold.
Minnesota Vikings Urged To Trade For Six-Time All-Pro