Vikings on Trade List for Next Young QB
Trey Lance was just traded for a fourth-round selection to the Dallas Cowboys to backup Dak Prescott. Prior to that move, many pundits envisioned the Minnesota Vikings pulling off a trade as they have to find someone to succeed Kirk Cousins as the franchise’s quarterback within the next 12 months unless they extend Couisins’ deal.
Vikings on Trade List for Next Young QB
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah kept his draft capital, and barring a huge surprise, will roll with Cousins and his two backups, Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall, into the season. But now, a different QB might end up on the trade market, and of course, the Vikings are a potential destination.
PFF’s Brad Spielberger put together a list of trade candidates on cutdown day, and sophomore quarterback Matt Corral from the Carolina Panthers landed on that list. The Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, and the Vikings are three potential new teams for him.
The young passer is the odd-man out in Carolina as they drafted Bryce Young first overall and added Andy Dalton in free agency, who is past his prime but still a decent backup after a strong 2022 season with the Saints.
Carolina signed free agent quarterback Andy Dalton to a two-year, $10 million deal and followed that up with the blockbuster trade for franchise quarterback Bryce Young. Corral, the team’s third-round selection just last year after a trade-up with the New England Patriots, was obviously the odd man out coming into camp. Teams may take advantage of the new rule that allows them to potentially play three quarterbacks on game day and roster a third option, but Carolina may also see if it can recoup any value out of a recent prospect.
With what sounds like a tough injury to wide receiver D.J. Chark, the Panthers could look to add outside talent to the receiver room if they aren’t comfortable with slotting in Terrace Marshall, Laviska Shenault Jr. and others on the depth chart. Numbers games elsewhere across the roster could make it more challenging to retain Corral, as well.
Corral was 4-of-12 for 52 yards in preseason Week 3, earning a 45.0 passing grade. One of the incompletions was a batted pass. Perhaps a team with a less settled backup spot — or a team interested in providing a change of scenery to a young quarterback, as the Dallas Cowboys did with Trey Lance — will give Carolina a call on Corral.
Corral was a highly regarded college quarterback, and some pundits also expected him to be a first-round pick in the draft. He slipped all the way to the third round and then missed his rookie season with a foot injury suffered in the preseason.
Because the Panthers landed Young in the draft, he has never received a chance in the NFL, and Spielberger thinks the Vikings should give him one. In theory, that is a nice idea because Cousins is in the final year of his contract, so the purple team is an obvious candidate to acquire a potential QB of the future.
But the problem is that nobody knows if Corral is even a potential starter in the NFL, and his shaky preseason didn’t help him. Kevin O’Connell has also committed to Hall as his developmental guy, and the Vikings will certainly not spend draft capital for two different projects in one offseason. That is why the Trey Lance speculations should have ended after the Vikings drafted Hall.
Much more likely is that the Vikings try to make a big splash in next year’s draft and trade up for a QB they like instead of trying to build a QB room without a quality quarterback, something the organization has tried for decades.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and Classic rock is his music genre of choice. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt
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