Trade deadline reaction: Where did all the sellers go?

The Vikings didn't make a move... basically neither did anybody else

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

In the lead up to the NFL trade deadline, one of the key assumptions was that the league’s struggling teams were going to sell off parts.

Think about it like someone who is moving out and having a yard sale — anything that you aren’t taking with you, give it away for whatever you can get, right? Except it seems that this year the bumbling franchises acted like that person who wants $50 for their old pair of shoes and $175 for a TV from 1997.

The list of potential trade targets that you could find on the internet leading up to the deadline included dozens of players. The yard sale was expected to have tables and tables of trinkets and gadgets. Oh, you need a veteran cornerback who is good at man coverage? You’ll find that back behind the garage next to the third down running backs. A defensive tackle who can get after the passer, you say? Certainly, that’s next to the diva receivers and well-aged pass rushers, near Table 5. Shop, shop, shop!

We all thought that it would be that way because there were a LOT of moving teams. By moving, I mean bad. There are 10 teams with three wins or fewer. Even if we eliminate the delusional Dallas Cowboys, who sent a fourth-rounder for Carolina bust wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, there are still plenty of teams that could have benefitted long term from getting anything in exchange for their expiring or big contracts.

The New Orleans Saints were one of the few sellers in their right mind on Tuesday, trading Marshon Lattimore to Washington and Cleveland dipped its toe in the seller’s water by dealing Za’Darius Smith to Detroit but otherwise almost everybody else stood around and shrugged their shoulders.

The Panthers didn’t move Adam Thielen, Jadeveon Clowney or Miles Sanders. The Giants didn’t move Azeez Ojulari or Darius Slayton. The Raiders didn’t trade DT Adam Butler. The Patriots didn’t trade Jonathan Jones or KJ Osborn. Tennessee didn’t move Sebastian Joseph-Day.

Crickets.

What gives?

It seemed that the Minnesota Vikings were headed to the yard sale on deadline day with lots of opportunities to use their limited draft capital to come away with something nice that could help them solidify positions in need of extra depth or a bit more versatility. More pressure from the defensive tackle position or depth at corner could have made an already-good defense into a less flawed unit. Any type of big move — maybe a Jeffery Simmons or Jaycee Horn — could have made them a great defense.

But when 3 PM CT arrived on November 5, the Vikings left the yard sale with nothing.

A good portion of the reaction was: What happened? Do they really want to win? Why not go all-in?

The reply to all that is: Who were they supposed to get?

If teams were not willing to sell, there wasn’t much the Vikings could do. Had there been a dozen players moved that would have made sense in Minnesota, then it would be reasonable to second guess the Vikings’ decisions but none of the buyers around the league were able to buy.

Is that because the flailing teams are holding out hope that they can eek out mediocre seasons? Is it because potential sellers wanted to keep their dignity rather than getting 2027 late-round conditional pick swaps? Was it GMs and coaches trying to save their bacon?

Whatever the reason, the Vikings were in a big crop of teams that had every reason to be shopping and simply weren’t able to pry anybody away from the bottom feeders.

So, is a quiet deadline going to cost the Vikings in the short term?

Well, we can’t forget that they already added two players at positions of serious need in Cam Akers and Cam Robinson.

Also they have a pretty good roster as it stands. The Vikings are fourth in the NFL in the catch-all yardage metric DVOA, they have a better point differential than the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs and their next three games are extremely winnable against the Jaguars, Titans and Bears. There is still a track to winning 12 games. That has generally been a threshold for teams making the Super Bowl as 33 of 48 teams to reach the Super Bowl since 2000 have won at least 12 games in the regular season.

The deciding factor might end up being injury luck. If the Vikings stay healthy, then they can play with just about anyone. They have beaten the 49ers, Texans and Packers and lost by just two points to the Lions. There are a handful of other teams in their tier when it comes to the key stats like DVOA and point differential but nobody running away from them in the NFC. If important players get banged up down the stretch though, they could have a tough time making up for absences, particularly on defense. We saw that last year when the defense lost Byron Murphy Jr. and DJ Wonnum and had issues making up for their absences.

That’s life in the NFL. Even the contenders do not have a lot of depth. The margins are thin. There will always be luck involved. Without reinforcements, the Vikings will need it on their side over the final nine games.

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