The Vikings’ Final Piece of Evidence Prior to the Trade Deadline
On Tuesday, November 5th, the NFL’s trade deadline will arrive. The Vikings’ final piece of evidence will arrive prior to then.
On Sunday, November 3rd, the Minnesota Vikings will host the Indianapolis Colts. Faltering in that contest would mean dropping down to a 5-3 record, losing three-straight games coming out of the bye. Winning would inject new life into hopeful Minnesotans and possibly spur the GM toward action.
The Vikings’ Final Piece of Evidence: The SNF Outcome
In a lot of ways, the team tells Kwesi Adofo-Mensah what to do.
The GM, of course, isn’t beholden to the team’s record. Rather, he can assess how strong his team is and then base his decision-making off of that record. A strong team with an actual chance to go the distance warrants a trade acquisition more than a middling team that’s barely hanging on in the Wild Card race.
Few, if any, expected the Vikings to begin the year at 5-0.
I forecasted 3-2 beginning to the season since the schedule was so gruelling. Minnesota confronted the widespread doubt with perfection, proving to be a team that’s difficult to overcome. Being difficult to overcome, though, isn’t the same thing as being impossible to overcome.
The Detroit Lions won by two points, suggesting that the game was close. The more pessimistic view is simply that they were operating without Aidan Hutchinson and playing on the road, so Minnesota had some advantages to work with in that one.
Even worse, the Thursday Night Football game ended in a 30-20 loss to Matthew Stafford’s Rams. Coming into the game, Stafford was sitting on 3 touchdown passes all season. He walked away from the game with 4 touchdown passes in that single contest, more than doubling his output or the year. Not good, folks.
The great part about sports, though, is that a season isn’t defined by just two weeks, especially when those two weeks occur prior to the midway point of the season.
Next up are the Colts. Currently, QB1 Anthony Richardson is getting roasted online for admitting that he took himself out of the game because he was tired. If Minnesota loses to Indianapolis, a 4-4 team that does have some talent, then something will be seriously off in Eagan.
Keep in mind, folks, that Richardson completed 10/32 of his passes — 31.3% — in Week 8 for 175 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. For the season, the sophomore is completing a mind-bogglingly-low 44.4% of his passes. Minnesota has no business losing this one, especially since the game is taking place at the Bank.
Defeating Richardson’s Colts would mean sitting at 6-2. Even better, the schedule doesn’t look overly formidable. Next up are the Jaguars, Titans, Bears, and Cardinals. Even going 3-1 in that stretch would mean sitting on a 9-3 record as they prep for the Week 14 date with Kirk Cousins’ Falcons.
Adofo-Mensah is currently in the process of weighing his options. He’ll be factoring in the draft capital that he has available alongside the cap ramifications of whatever move he makes. So, too, will Adofo-Mensah consider his team’s record. Reinforcing a team with a strong record, a team that has proved itself capable of overcoming adversity, is a lot more appealing than sinking resources into what could be a team that’s falling apart.
Minnesota has roughly $9.5 million in cap space.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.