Vikings Have a Bizarre Trade Candidate
Pro Football Focus sized up tradable assets around the NFL last week, and the Minnesota Vikings were not excluded.
Vikings Have a Bizarre Trade Candidate
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has already fired off two trades this offseason, sending guard Ed Ingram to the Houston Texans for a 2026 6th-Round draft pick, which he then shipped to San Francisco for running back Jordan Mason.
Adofo-Mensah loves to wheel and deal, so more trades are expected, probably during the 2025 NFL Draft.
And according to PFF, Harrison Phillips, a veteran defensive tackle, is Minnesota’s main trade asset with the draft one month away.
PFF’s Trade Take on Harrison Phillips
PFF’s Bradley Locker nominated Phillips as a trade candidate and explained, “Minnesota overhauled its trenches as part of commendable free agency work, including on the interior defensive line with Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. Neither is coming off a remarkable season, but it means someone like Phillips, now lower in the rotation, could be traded.”
It’s unclear what trade package, in theory, Phillips would command, but a fair estimate is possibly a 5th-Round draft pick.
“Phillips finished with sub-61.0 PFF grades as a pass rusher and a run defender last year, but he’s previously been stout against the run. From 2021 to 2023, his PFF run-defense grade sat in the 91st percentile and his run-stop rate placed in the 88th percentile. Teams could take a shot on the 29-year-old in the hopes of seeing a rebound,” Locker added.
He also mentioned players like Kayvon Thibodeaux (New York Giants), Brandon Aiyuk (San Francisco 49ers), Micah Parsons (Dallas Cowboys), and Romeo Doubs (Green Bay Packers) as examples of other tradable players around the business.
DT Depth Would Shrink if So
As of late March, these are the purple defensive tackles:
- Jonathan Allen
- Javon Hargrave
- Harrison Phillips
- Jalen Redmond
- Taki Taimani
- Levi Drake Rodriguez
- Jonathan Harris
- Travis Bell
If PFF has it correct — it probably does not — Minnesota would’ve enjoyed a few weeks of defensive line depth before offloading Phillips to a new destination. Fans spent years yearning and pleading for the club to build the trenches, and at long last, it listened during 2025 free agency.
Sacrificing the depth mere days after fixing the trenches would be perceived as backward and counterproductive for some.
Why Trade Harrison Phillips?
The working theory would be that because Allen and Hargrave now work in the Twin Cities, well, Phillips is expendable.
Ironically, for the last three seasons, Phillips represented the lone bright spot among all Vikings defensive tackles because he’s dependable and consistent. He may not be the greatest pass-rushing DT on the planet, but now Allen and Hargrave are in the house to supplement Phillips’ run-first defensive presence.
While the PFF theory is entertaining, Minnesota shouldn’t downsize in the trenches. Contrarily, they should examine more defensive tackles in the draft, perhaps onboarding a player like Walter Nolen from Mississippi, Kenneth Grant of Michigan, or Oregon’s Derrick Harmon.
Keep the trenches; don’t ship them away for menial draft picks.
Other Trade Candidates?
Adofo-Mensah will likely trade draft picks like a kid does baseball cards in four weeks — that’s what he does — but a player or two could be on the trade block before the start of the regular season.
The list might include these players:
- Brian Asamoah (LB)
- Blake Brandel (G)
- Ty Chandler (RB)
It’s worth noting that Minnesota would not fetch much for any of those players.
Phillips turned 29 two months ago and earns $7.5 million annually. His cap number is not a huge burden.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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