Trade! Vikings Send Lineman To New England
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did it again. He was a Wall Street Commodity Trader before he started to make a career in the NFL and Minnesota’s general manager brought his tendencies to facilitate trades into the NFL. Whether it is the draft or the approaching cutdown day, the GM is always looking to pull off trades.
Trade! Vikings Send Lineman To New England
With the final cutdown day approaching on Tuesday, the deadline to get under the roster limit of 53, the Vikings sent their offensive lineman Vederian Lowe to the New England Patriots according to Aaron Wilson. The Vikings get a sixth-rounder in return.
Lowe was a sixth-round pick in Adofo-Mensah’s first draft class in 2022, so they got the original pick back. Although the Vikings already had Blake Brandel and Oli Udoh on the team, Lowe showed enough in his rookie preseason and training camp to earn a roster spot as a fifth offensive tackle, an unusual strategy. Most teams keep the two starters and a couple of backups.
The lineman appeared in four games in his debut season and played on 33 offensive snaps, all in the final regular season game in Chicago, a meaningless game for the Vikings. 24 years old out of Illinois, Lowe had an excellent training camp and his preseason games were quite promising, so much so that folks started to speculate if he made Oli Udoh expendable.
But instead, he generated enough trade value to be shipped to New England. The Vikings are still set at tackle and don’t necessarily need a replacement because of Brandel’s position flexibility to play guard and tackle and Udoh’s presence.
One year ago, Adofo-Mensah traded backup right guard Jesse Davis to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional seventh-round pick. The veteran made 14 appearances as a backup for the Steelers and the Vikings unloaded his salary and opened a roster spot.
On the flip side, the Vikes made moves to acquire backup passer Nick Mullens who is still on the team because he was re-signed as Kirk Cousins’ top backup as a solid and experienced QB2, a job he will have in the upcoming season as well.
Jalen Reagor was also brought in. The draft bust from the Philadelphia Eagles was viewed as the solution as a punt returner and a depth receiver with the potential to make an impact as a former first-rounder. He hasn’t been great as a returner and the Vikings haven’t unlocked his talent on offense. If Brandon Powell usurped him as a returner, he could be in trouble, even though he has looked improved in his second year in Minnesota.
The third acquisition was Ross Blacklock, a former second-round pick of the Houston Texans. Similarly to Reagor, the Vikings hoped to unlock something with a change of scenery but he barely made an impact and is fairly on the roster bubble in 2023.
The Vikings have already cut a few players to get the roster down to 53 players. Many more moves will follow, either by placing guys on IR, trading them away, or releasing them, the team needs to move on from almost 40 players within a couple of days.
The 24-year-old lineman will likely function as a swing backup in Bill Belichick’s offense.
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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