Vikings Winners and Losers from the 2025 Trade Deadline
The 2025 NFL trade deadline is in the books, and despite widespread and splashy movement around the league, the Minnesota Vikings stood pat and conducted no transactions.
The trade deadline has passed, and the Minnesota Vikings sat idle, generating a handful of winners and losers for the purple team for the rest of 2025.
The Vikings evidently enjoy their roster as-is, as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, for the first time in a regular season, pulled the trigger on no deals.
Vikings Trade Deadline Winners and Losers
Implications for who won and lost after Tuesday.
Winner: Blake Brandel
In theory, the Vikings could have been in the market for a veteran center, as four-time Pro Bowler Ryan Kelly remains on injured reserve. Players like Aaron Brewer (Miami Dolphins), Jackson Powers-Johnson (Las Vegas Raiders), and Ethan Pocic (Cleveland Browns) might have piqued Adofo-Mensah’s attention.
But Minnesota made no deals at the deadline, and for the time being, Brandel, who has played better each week at his new position, will remain at center.
It’s also worth noting that Kelly began light work with trainers this week, hinting at a possible return to the starting lineup in a few weeks.
Winner: Fabian Moreau
Last week, Jeff Okudah didn’t play due to his second concussion of the season. Most in-the-weeds Vikings fans expected second-year corner Dwight McGlothern to take his spot on the depth chart, but Minnesota’s defensive coaching staff disagreed.
Instead, the team tapped Moreau on the shoulder, promoted him from the practice squad, and he saw a bit of action in the win over the Detroit Lions. Moreau has ample NFL experience, but as a practice squader, most didn’t believe he’d take snaps over McGlothern.
He did precisely that in Week 9, and with no CB trades on Tuesday, he might be the Vikings’ fail-safe at cornerback — for better or worse.
Loser: The All-In Crowd
Theoretically, Minnesota could have been a suitor for cornerback Sauce Gardner, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, or even wideout Jakobi Meyers.
Conversely, Minnesota chose the status quo.
After spending hundreds of millions during 2025 free agency, a section of the fan base believes the franchise is all-in right now to win a Super Bowl. It could still get hot and effectuate that mission, but Kevin O’Connell and Co. will do so without Gardner, Williams, Shaheed, and Meyers.
The Vikings might be all-in, but they’re not all the way all-in.
Winner: Draft Heads
Adofo-Mensah could have dangled any of his draft picks this week to acquire notable veteran players. He usually does that before a deadline.
Yet, the young executive took it easy in 2025 for the first time in his career. He didn’t wheel and deal.
The fallout? Well, when the draft rolls around in April, Adofo-Mensah will have a mostly full draft capital bank. In 2024, Adofo-Mensah took heat for trading so much for outside linebacker Dallas Turner. His war chest was dinky in 2025 accordingly.
Now, though, Vikings fans who adore the draft will have the full experience from January 2026 to the end of April 2026, so long as Adofo-Mensah doesn’t trade a bunch of picks in the spring.
Loser: Offensive Coordinator Wes Phillips
The Athletic‘s Dianna Russini tweeted Tuesday, “The Jets’ asking price for Breece Hall is a third-round pick, per source. Teams have yet to meet New York’s ask with just over an hour to go until the deadline.”
About half of the NFL fan base collectively began dreaming about acquiring Hall, as a 3rd-Rounder seemed like a fair price for a tailback as dynamic as Hall.
Of course, the purple fan base was there for the fun, urging the team to send a 3rd-Rounder to New York for Hall on social media, especially because Minnesota will grab a 3rd-Round compensatory pick next year for Sam Darnold’s free-agent departure last offseason.
Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips’ life would’ve been much easier with Hall in the mix. Hand the rock to Hall 25-30 times per game and use Aaron Jones + Jordan Mason to fill the gaps.
No such luck. Hall will remain one of the last stars standing in New York for a few months on a now utterly rudderless team. Some reports claimed that Hall was “sick” over this team’s trade dealings on Tuesday.
What could have been.
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