3 Trade Deadline Moves To Improve The Vikings’ Offensive Line
Ben Lyso
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Six grueling, heartbreaking, liver cirrhosis-inducing weeks later, and the Vikings are firmly out of the playoff hunt.
The 2020 season commenced with a number of question marks for the Vikings: how would the new-look defense, Kirk Cousins, and the plethora of rookies perform?
All of those questions, sans Justin Jefferson, can be answered simply with, “Nauseating.”
A trip to Lambeau this Sunday all but guarantees a 1-6 start for the purple, and now the focus must be shifted to the November 3rd trade deadline and building for the future.
The weeks before the deadline can be slow, but the fire sale started early this year. Vikings GM Rick Spielman seemingly cut his losses on new acquisition DE Yannick Ngakoue, trading him to the Baltimore Ravens just months after acquiring him in August.
What came next was a flurry of rumor-mill activity and outlandish suggestions about whom the team should part with next.
Harrison Smith? Kyle Rudolph? Adam Thielen?
All of them semi big-money aging veterans with a few years of value left, but fortunately (or unfortunately for the masochistic portion of the fan base) any of these players being moved before the deadline seems unrealistic.
Rudolph’s contract is a net negative compared to his play, and the return in a Smith and/or Theilen trade would be worse than most people realize.
What follows is a realistic list of players and moves the Vikings could make before the deadline to set themselves up for success in the future.
1. Trade Riley Reiff for a third or fourth-round pick
People are so blinded by the heinous guard play (and, rightfully so) that the performance of the other offensive lineman is going under the radar.
Garrett Bradbury is growing and improving on his performance from last year, Brian O’Neill is ranked in the top 20% of all tackles according to PFF, and Riley Reiff is quietly having a very solid campaign.
Back at the start of the season, reports came out that the Vikings were looking to cut Reiff due to cap savings. In a turn of events, he accepted a pay cut and is performing like a valuable piece to the Vikings’ offensive line.
Trading Reiff would accomplish two things:
First, the Vikings would gain value from a player they will most likely cut in the offseason anyway. A number of teams have decimated offensive lines — such as the Cowboys and the Titans — and the addition of Reiff would prove valuable to a number of rosters.
Second, and most importantly, the trade would allow the Vikings to develop their second-round pick, Ezra Cleveland, in his natural position. Cleveland is (hopefully) the teams’ tackle of the future, so giving him starting reps in a throwaway season could do wonders for his experience and development.
2. Trade for Baltimore Guard Bradley Bozeman
What does the Vikings offense need more than anything?
Say it with me now: “Guards”.
(If you said, “a quarterback that doesn’t want to make you drink bleach”, that is also a valid answer, but not what I’m looking for here.)
As I stated in the previous section, despite the current guard play — or, lack thereof — the rest of the Vikings’ offensive line is performing admirably this year. Bradbury, O’Neill, and Reiff are all playing starting-caliber football.
It’s just those damn guards.
And since Rick Speilman has a seeming reluctance to draft a position group that has plagued the team for so many years, the next best thing would be to target a promising player before the trade deadline.
Baltimore’s Bradley Bozeman could be that player.
Drafted in the 6th round of the 2018 NFL Draft, Bozeman has developed into a reliable starter for the Ravens.
At 25 years old, PFF’s 18th ranked guard would fit the “offensive line timeline” perfectly with Bradbury and O’Neill, who are both also 25 years old.
Not to mention, his play-style is perfect for the Vikings’ blocking scheme.
Take this play, for example, where Bozeman (#77) pulls from the left side of the line to the right to block the linebacker for an easy Mark Ingram touchdown.
Or this play from the same game in which Bozeman pulls off the line and meets the safety nearly eight yards downfield to spring a 50-yard Lamar Jackson touchdown.
In addition, his cap hit is minuscule. While undoubtedly commanding much more after his current contract, his cap hit for 2020 is $779,602, and his cap hit for 2021 is $949,602.
The Ravens would ask for significant capital in return for a young, promising guard, but would a second-round pick be out of the question for a Vikings organization with such recent woes at the guard position?
3. Trade for Cleveland Guard Wyatt Teller
Anthony Harris, Odell Beckham Jr., Adam Thielen, Harrison Smith…
The Vikings and Browns have been linked in a seemingly never-ending trade rumor reverberation since longtime Viking Kevin Stefanski joined the Browns as their Head Coach this past offseason.
While many of the past rumors would be near-blockbuster type acquisitions (albeit unrealistic), I believe many are missing the mark completely.
The Vikings should be targeting the Browns’ offensive line.
During the Browns’ early playoff push — which no doubt has Vikings fans wondering if the team made a mistake letting Stefanski go — one of their overlooked keys to success has been their offensive line.
When looking at PFF’s rankings for all offensive linemen, you will find not one, not two, but FOUR of Cleveland’s offensive linemen ranking inside the top-30.
Sitting atop those rankings as PFF’s number one offensive lineman is third-year guard Wyatt Teller.
Wyatt Teller was selected in the 5th round of the 2018 NFL Draft and has performed exponentially better this year than his first two years in the league. The change? A few different outlets credit Teller’s weight gain this past offseason for his newfound success.
Whatever the case may be, Teller is a third-year guard playing like an All-Pro.
In this video, you can see Teller (#77) making blocks all over the field in a style that would be absolutely perfect for the Vikings run scheme.
Like Bradley Bozeman, Wyatt Teller has a team-friendly $750,000 contract, and is 25 years old, falling on the perfect “offensive line timeline” as Bradbury and O’Neill.
But unfortunately, like Bradley Bozeman, Wyatt Teller would no doubt command a hefty asking price.
The Browns would be hard-pressed to give away their best performing offensive lineman in the midst of a surprising 5-2 start to the season, but given they have four linemen playing at an elite level, perhaps they could be swayed due to their embarrassment of riches.
At some point, I think an organization needs to ask itself: How much would they give up for a young, elite offensive lineman?
A second-round pick? A first-round pick?
Rick Spielman could try his hand at drafting an elite offensive lineman that could very well go the way of Matt Khalil, or he could trade that draft pick for a young, proven commodity.
Seems like an easy decision from the outside looking in.