Things Just Got a LOT More Complicated for the Vikings...

Things just got a lot more complicated for the Vikings after these recent Jonathan Taylor updates that might make a trade a little bit out of reach but not impossible, especially when looking at certain details that have slowly been emerging that could change the tides back in Minnesota's favor. We're going to break down all of that in this episode of Vikings Digest, but first, we are less than 30 subscribers away from hitting our goal of 5,600 before we kick off against the Lions on Sunday, so if you're part of the 89% of viewers who are not yet subscribed and want to stay up to date on all things Vikings, make sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell icon so you don't miss any of the episodes when they drop note that will top right into it which is the Jonathan Taylor trade updates as we know that the Vikings are looking to be active this trade deadline as the reports are expected for them to further ramp up conversations with teams on available players this week as the trade deadline is just less than a week away we are getting closer and closer every single day and we know the Indianapolis Colts are in fire sale mode right now Quenton Nelson gone DeForest Buckner gone Josh Downs just requested a trade I don't think Minnesota is going to be in on those sweepstakes necessarily but we know that the Vikings are making calls and are interested in Jonathan Taylor and there are a lot of other teams obviously that are interested because a guy like him brings a lot of interest along with it naturally I mean if you have him in fantasy like I do you are very much enjoying the points that he is bringing you and you can't help but wonder how many more fantasy points he would bring you if he was on Minnesota as well as making this team a Super Bowl contender where the run game would get a massive boost right away where they would have possibly their best running I mean not possibly I think undoubtedly would have their best running back since Dalvin Cook and I think that would go a long way towards the Vikings trying to go on a very deep run this postseason but despite all that Adam Schefter was on Pat McAfee's show yesterday saying that the Colts ownership does not want to trade Jonathan Taylor and it just puts it in a little bit of an interesting scenario here where just because a team doesn't want to trade a player no team wants to trade their best player we've seen it all the time I mean maybe the Vikings didn't want to trade J.J. McCarthy I'm not saying that's the case I'm just trying to play devil's advocate but we've seen it in the past where teams have moved on from their star player not because they wanted to but because they had to when you look at where the Colts are right now they do not have the capabilities of going on a playoff run or even making the playoffs in that respect so it makes sense to move off of Jonathan Taylor who's coming up on the end of his contract in a couple of years so Minnesota could take advantage of that almost in the same way that the Eagles took advantage of the Saquon Barkley contract where they brought him in there just basically to try and win a Super Bowl that year it worked out they gave Saquon a short-term extension bada boom bada bing that could be what Nolan Teasley is going to try and do this time around with Jonathan Taylor and even though the Colts have said they don't want to trade Taylor and that Jonathan Taylor has not requested a trade he is currently looking at a 30% chance of being traded as per Jeremy Fowler where he put a breakdown of all the top trade candidates that have been reported throughout the past couple of weeks and with Jonathan Taylor being at 30 Juwan Jennings you can see on there is at 50 so that's a little bit interesting but as far as Jonathan Taylor being at 30% it goes to show that even though the Colts are saying they don't want to trade him Jonathan Taylor hasn't requested a trade there is still a chance that Jonathan Taylor is moved at the trade deadline and as far as what Jeremy Fowler had to say on the matter before we get into that i do think that Jonathan Taylor will be traded i think we've seen it a lot of times where we saw it with Vikings JJ McCarthy where they talked about JJ McCarthy as if he was going to be in Minnesota for a long time and then they just shipped his ass out then you look at with the Colts right here where they could also be saying this because they want to drive up the price there has been a lot of instances in the past where a team has a premier player but they are also in a fire sale mode where teams are going to lowball them and just try and get a steal out of it where Minnesota would probably try and offer maybe a third and a fifth for Jonathan Taylor or maybe a second and a third or something like that but maybe the Colts in this scenario where they are saying we don't want to trade him that might have forced all these interested teams to have to go in and say hey we'll give you a first round pick for him or we'll give you a first and a third or a first and a second who knows I think the first and the second would probably split between two different years I think for 2027 and 2028 but we could be surprised as far as what Nolan Teasley is going to try and offer them because we know that the Vikings are very interested as far as what Jeremy Fowler had to say on the whole Jonathan Taylor matter he was saying that teams I've talked to aren't totally sold that Indianapolis will trade Taylor despite heavy interest at least not yet keyword yet he is signed long term and would be a boon for next year's coaching staff whether it's the current group or entirely new as well as saying that but Kenneth with Kenneth Walker Jr has done for Kansas City shows how a premier running back can put on New Jersey colors and immediately reimagine a team season we saw Saquon Barkley do exactly that two years ago and the tenor of Indy's season is getting ugly which affects all key players and could spark even more movement and you get into where he says the potential trade possibility being at 30 percent with the team fits being the Seahawks the Commanders the Saints the Broncos and of course the Vikings now immediately I want to just eliminate the Seahawks right off the bat just because I do think if the Seahawks were in those in the sweepstakes for Jonathan Taylor we probably would have seen Jonathan Taylor packaged up with Quinton Nelson to go over to Seattle because that didn't happen they're getting Zach Charbonnet back Manuel Wilson is actually really good too as a solid 1B back I wouldn't even call him an RB2 then you look at the commanders they could obviously use him because they don't know how to commit to a running back one same with the saints same with the broncos and unfortunately same with the vikings as they view this running back tandem of Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason as a 1a 1b type thing but right now with Aaron Jones's health do they really want to invest that much faith in him staying healthy all year it's been this thing where for the past two and a half years ever since Aaron Jones has been in Minnesota it feels like every single week he is on the injury report whether it's with something serious or something minor he seems to always have a questionable tag every single week he ends up being out on the field and being a warrior powering through it but at what point is your luck going to run out with that and he eventually can't get going or can't go on a Sunday when you absolutely need him and Jordan Mason can't really get it going as we saw him struggle against the Colts the other day where he only managed 60 yards on over 10 carries or over 12 carries so that goes to show that maybe Minnesota needs more running back than they would like to admit now is that in the form of a Saquon Barkley probably not because he's injured is that in the form of a Jonathan Taylor well if the price is going to be too high possibly not could it be Tony Pollard that could be the more realistic option in this scenario but I know a lot of Vikings fans are anticipating that he goes to Minnesota or hoping he goes to Minnesota even though the Broncos are going to make it tough but they have kind of their own committee that they're working with where it seems to be doing just fine for them as long as Bo Nix can't be moving the ball at least their running backs are even though they got three that they're basically rolling with then you look at some of the other teams as well that are interested i think the Commanders like i said before they also could definitely need it i think the Saints they're in a tailspin right now where they're not necessarily a competitive team or a competing team for a playoff spot or a playoff run and they absolutely need help in the run game but they have Travis Etienne coming back but i think Travis Etienne isn't necessarily a bell cow number one running back anymore I don't think he ever really was except for flashes here and there but when you look at Jonathan Taylor obviously undoubtedly a number one bell cow but when you look at what could be the most telling thing about all of this not just the trade percentage by the insiders not just what the Colts are saying as far as they don't want to trade him is the big thing going into this Sunday and me having him fantasy I really hope this doesn't happen but I do think if it does it will be very very indicative if Jonathan Taylor is getting traded and that has to do with if he is available in a trade and if a deal isn't done before the weekend the Colts could hold him out of action on Sunday in order to keep him healthy for that potential trade and this wouldn't be anything new that we've seen in the NFL where someone is a healthy scratch and sooner and two days later three days later they are shipped out to another team where they get to be fully healthy and just go out and dominate i mean Marvin Harrison Jr was he really injured this year was he really forgetting how to play football this year or was he just trying to get his ass out of Arizona and we've seen it with a i mean with AJ Brown maybe that was the case in Philly but the way he's playing right now in New England i don't necessarily know if that's going to be the case necessarily but there's been some other instances as well where guys i mean Joey Porter Jr where he was injured with the Pittsburgh Steelers goes to the Cowboys he seems just fine he's out there playing and he's playing as if he never was injured in the first place so i do definitely think that with the Jonathan Taylor situation if he doesn't play on Sunday you can definitely expect him to be traded either that night or the next day when the week resets i mean even before Monday Night Football kicks off where i think Jonathan Taylor will absolutely be moved before the trade deadline i think even if he does play on Sunday but if he doesn't i think you can absolutely guarantee that he will be traded it's just going to be a matter of if he goes to the Vikings or the Broncos the Saints the Seahawks or even the Giants or the Commanders at that point but it remains to be seen and I'm very excited while also very anxious about it and the other thing too that I think is indicative of why we haven't necessarily seen a deal happen a lot of people are probably saying well if it hasn't happened by now it probably won't happen but I think what Minnesota is keeping in mind here is something that someone pointed out on Twitter is that the Vikings are incentivized to wait until deadline week to acquire Jonathan Taylor instead of right now according to Spotrac Minnesota would be just over the salary cap limit with the Taylor trade this week if Minnesota waited until deadline week they can fully absorb Taylor's remaining 2026 salary and that i think is the biggest caveat here where everyone is refreshing the social media feed to see if Jonathan Taylor went to Minnesota or if he's moved to anywhere in particular but in case in the how it relates to Minnesota is saying that hey they don't have the money right now to do it this week but when deadline week rolls around they will be able to absolutely make that move so who's to say that Nolan Tressel isn't making calls to Carly Ursee saying listen you're going to get a lot of calls over the next couple of days but this is going to be the best offer that we can give you just hold out for a couple more days if you got to sit him for Sunday's game go ahead and do it but we want to work a deal here because we think that Jonathan Taylor could be a major asset in Minnesota and we're willing to give you a first round pick different next year and a second round pick for the year after that I think that would be a very hard offer to match that I think a lot of teams wouldn't necessarily be willing to put up especially for getting a premier running back that is going to be on a short-term deal with not a lot of time left and looking to get an extension so I think that would be a very expensive extension in the case of Minnesota they might be willing to just take that investment on for just this year and almost do a little bit of the opposite with Philly did where they brought in Saquon he carried them to the Super Bowl I think that's what Minnesota is looking to do but I don't think Minnesota will try to extend Taylor I think that'll only drive up his value even more and they will let another team scoop him up so they have more cap space to go out and extend Blake Cashman Jordan Addison and so many other guys and as well as just prioritize finding a guy in the draft but it's going to be very interesting to see what happens as like I said before how Tony Pollard could possibly be the more realistic opportunity and as well as what Dan Graziano was saying on social media saying that Tony Pollard is believed to be more likely to be dealt than JT or Saquon Barkley and it's going to be a very busy trade deadline as reported by Jordan Schultz saying that this could result in 12 to 20 trades as we've already seen a couple get going already with the Indian Indianapolis Colts being in fire sale mode and I don't doubt that we are going to see a lot more as we get closer and closer to the deadline because it's getting very close it seems like it's just flying by through this season we're already going into week eight and it feels like the season already just started and teams are now finding their stride and hopefully Minnesota can go out and make a move that would absolutely set them over the top and put them in that Super Bowl contender conversation if they aren't already I know a lot of the mass media is excluding them from those conversations but if they don't make that move it'd be very hard not to immediately put them in those conversations but let us know what you guys think down in the comments below if you think Minnesota is going to eventually pull off the move for Jonathan Taylor or if you think that Tony Pollard will be their most likely option especially after that big game he had on Sunday where he had a basically he had a hat trick of touchdowns and just went absolutely nuts over the Cleveland Browns but let us know down in the comments below is that's going to do it for this episode of Vikings Digest again thank you guys so much for watching liking subscribing hitting that bell icon so you don't miss the episodes when they drop but for now I've been your host Griffin take care