Vikings May Trade-1, Keep-1 at RB
Dustin Baker
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Minnesota Vikings fans will experience a peek into the team’s roster-building soul this week as free agency kicks off Monday with “legal tampering.”
If general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah signs a handful of impactful players, the Vikings will be “in it to win it” for about the eighth consecutive season. But if he acquires relatively anonymous players on value contracts, the 2023 campaign may be more transformational and emphasize the rebuild part of Adofo-Mensah’s famous “competitive rebuild” slogan.
Vikings May Trade-1, Keep-1 at RB
All of that is coming — like really soon — and along the way, Minnesota could trade one prominent running back while re-signing another.
Chirpings began last week about a possible Dalvin Cook trade, a rumored deal that would ship the 27-year-old to the San Francisco 49ers for one of their plentiful draft picks. Cook is on the Vikings books for a $14.4 million cap hit in 2023, and San Francisco was allotted seven compensatory draft picks on Thursday for savvy decision-making. On the surface, it seems odd that the 49ers would trade any draft capital for an RB — they have Christian McCaffrey — but San Francisco also doesn’t have to pay quarterbacks megabucks with its Brock Purdy + Trey Lance sandwich.
Then what? Well, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Vikings could indeed explore the Cook trade and perhaps retain RB2 Alexander Mattison, a free agent, in 2023. Fowler wrote, “The Vikings are open for business as well. They’ve released three veteran players thus far — including legacy player Adam Thielen — and multiple teams believe Minnesota has had trade talks centered around running back Dalvin Cook.”
“The team is attempting to re-sign Cook’s backup, Alexander Mattison, who is poised for a starter’s role somewhere. Safety Harrison Smith most likely needs to take a pay cut to remain with the team. He’s due $15 million-plus in cash and the Vikings are in clear scale-back mode,” he added.
With the added Smith insight in the Vikings secondary, Minnesota could be plotting a 2023 backfield of Mattison, second-year RB Ty Chandler, and the speedy Kene Nwangwu. That group outwardly isn’t what Vikings fans are accustomed to — 16 years of Adrian Peterson and Dalvin Cook is the familiarity — but is more in tune with the modern NFL, which is frequently governed by RB committees.
Moreover, after the Vikings lost to the New York Giants in the playoffs, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert tweeted, “[Kirk] Cousins mentioned two pending free agents that he feels close to: center Garrett Bradbury and tailback Alexander Mattison.”
That isn’t a rubberstamp on a Mattison reunion, but it’s a reasonable indicator of his value in the locker room if the team’s QB1 hinted at his return.
Thankfully for the Vikings sake, Mattison will be significantly more affordable than his teammate Cook. He’s likely to fetch about $2-3 million on the market this week, and that might be paid by the Vikings, who would maintain some RB continuity.
Mattison is 24 years old.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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