Vikings Rumors Buzz around a T.J. Hockenson Trade, Max Brosmer Truthers, Kirk Cousins
The Minnesota Vikings’ rumor mill will turn hot-hot over the next few days, with the NFL trade deadline around the bend on Tuesday.
The purple rumor this week addresses a T.J. Hockenson trade for the Vikings, Max Brosmer, and an old friend in quarterback Kirk Cousins down in ATL.
In the meantime, let’s peek at the last seven days’ worth of rumors for the purple team.
Vikings Rumor Mill | November 1st, 2025
Delivering all the week’s chatter in the Purple Rumor Mill.
Rumor: T.J. Hockenson could be traded if the Vikings lose at Detroit.
The idea of a T.J. Hockenson trade started making the rounds on social media last Friday, sparked by a piece from The Sporting News.
Breaking down one trade each NFL team should consider before the deadline, Vinnie Iyer explained, “Best deal to make: Trade TE T.J. Hockenson to the Rams. Let’s start by saying the Vikings, at .500, are unlikely to make a deal either way with little glaring need and limited pending free agent assets.”
“But this would be interesting, given Hockenson keeps not producing as a key target for Kevin O’Connell but could turn out to be the missing third option in the adjacent Rams offense. Other players to watch: Falcons QB Kirk Cousins.”
That short section in Iyer’s column was all it took for fans online to run with it — suddenly, the talk became: “Hockenson’s on his way out.” The Hockenson rumor spread fast across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — circulating so widely it started to feel like it had some real backing.
But there’s been no indication from the Vikings or any trusted NFL insiders that Hockenson is actually on the trade block. So what happened? Readers saw Iyer’s piece and ran with it, treating a speculative exercise as breaking news.
In truth, Iyer simply listed one player from every team who could be moved before the deadline. He just happened to use Hockenson as his “what if” example — and that was enough to light up the rumor mill.
Rumor: The Vikings didn’t play Max Brosmer last week because they were scared he’d play too well.
Carson Wentz was knocked around to high heavens in Week 8, and Brosmer didn’t see action until very late in the 4th Quarter. That prompted some fans to speculate that the Vikings didn’t want to see Brosmer because he might play better than J.J. McCarthy, setting up an apparently dicey situation.
If the preseason version of Brosmer had played on Thursday Night Football, the belief is he would’ve done well — and that success supposedly would’ve irritated the Vikings’ coaching staff. It sounds ridiculous, but that’s the theory floating around.
One Twitter user wrote Sunday, “My conspiracy theory is that the Vikings refuse to start Brosmer because if the undrafted kid balls out and is better than Jerome Jerald McCarthy, it’ll make the front office look like a bunch of stupid [f–kchops].”
It’s worth noting that Jerome Jerald McCarthy is not even his real name.
That post racked up about 37,000 views and was shared more than two dozen times.
Then the Purple FTW! podcast jumped in, tweeting, “Why didn’t KOC play Brosmer more vs Chargers? Does he not trust Bros Show? He does. Otherwise why no other QBs on roster besides JJ? Does he not want Bros to shine? Yes. Because if Brosmer lit it up, there would be a QB controversy with JJ. That won’t help McCarthy’s development. Also 100% why KOC didn’t use his timeouts to try and score on the last drive.”
And just like that, a fresh Vikings conspiracy theory was born — tailor-made for the timeline.
O’Connell later cleared the air by saying he didn’t want to set Bromser up for failure, debunking the dumb conspiracy theory on the spot.
Rumor: Kirk Cousins has asked for a trade out of Atlanta.
Kirk Cousins hasn’t exactly been thrilled in Atlanta since the team benched him last December for rookie Michael Penix Jr. Most around the league figured the veteran quarterback would be traded or released over the offseason, but the Falcons stood firm and kept him on the roster.
Now, though, it sounds like Cousins would prefer a change of scenery before the trade deadline.
USA Today’s Tyler Dragon reported, “The Falcons backup QB still desires an opportunity to start elsewhere, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. However, no trade appears to be imminent. Cousins made his first start of the season for the injured Michael Penix Jr. (knee) in Atlanta’s 34-10 Week 8 loss.”
So, once again, it looks like Atlanta might stand pat — even if Cousins is ready to move on.
His best chance to be traded in the next few days would be a major injury to a starting quarterback this Sunday or Monday (as vicious as that sounds).
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