Things Just Took a MAJOR Turn for the Vikings...

Things just took a major turn for the Vikings after a much discussed trade target was just stolen away by an opposing contender which leaves tons of questions not just around this move but also other potential trade opportunities for Nolan Teasley to pick the Colts clean during their fire sale. We're gonna break it down all that in this episode of Vikings Digest but first we're trying to hit our goal of 5,600 subscribers before we kick off against the Detroit Lions on Sunday as well as being just over a couple hundred subscribers away from eclipsing Bengals Digest So if you're a part of the 89% of viewers who are not yet subscribed, you want to help us reach that goal. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell icon so you don't miss any of the episodes when they drop. With that, let's hop right into it, which is the Quenton Nelson trade fallout. As we saw earlier today or just about an hour ago, not even, that Quenton Nelson was traded from the Indianapolis Colts to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for draft capital. As Nelson is on an expiring contract and the Colts get back draft capital now before they could lose him in free agency as they were kind of expecting. and a Colts legend goes to the super defending Super Bowl champs as they are currently trying to fix what they got on offense right now to give Sam Darnold a lot of protection now a lot of Vikings fans we all thought Quentin Nelson coming to Minnesota that was a done deal we were basically saying no bother getting on the plane back to Indianapolis after the game on Sunday because you're going to be staying in the Twin Cities well it's not the case now folks unfortunately Minnesota misses the boat on an all-pro offensive lineman that would have been perfect for the team however there was interest from Minnesota as Kevin Seifert also was reporting on it saying that I believe the Vikings had had some interest in Quenton Nelson but ultimately he is going to Nolan Teasey's former team in Seattle Minnesota didn't seem willing to give up the proper compensation which was a 2027 third round pick in a 2028 fifth round pick so that is a big price that Minnesota probably could have probably paid but I think if anything that 30 million dollar extension was what scared off Minnesota a little bit in this scenario where you have Will Fries making 90 million dollars where I think a lot of Vikings fans would have been okay with shipping Will Fries back to Indianapolis in exchange for Quenton Nelson and some picks or at least bringing Nelson in on an expensive one-year rental to try and make a run at the Super Bowl or the third option was trading Will Fries away to another team having Quentin Nelson using that extra cap space to try and apply it to an extension for Nelson however with all the extensions that Minnesota has coming up where you got Blake Cashman you got Jordan Addison you got T.J. Hockenson on a one-year deal you got Aaron Jones on an expiring deal you got so many other guys that have contracts coming up and Minnesota is going to have to worry about those guys more than they would with Quentin Nelson because when you look at their offensive line they're already paying Darius a bunch of money they're already paying Brian O'Neill a bunch of money they're gonna have to pay Donovan Jackson a bunch of money too Will Fries Blake Brandel those are the two question marks on the offensive line right now as far as how much longer they will be in Minnesota. However, I think Minnesota is going to be in a spot where they might just sit tight with the offensive line that they have right now even though Will Fries is getting absolutely dummied this year. I think that this move missed the boat on that one but I think there are some other potential opportunities out there. Maybe not on the Colts for an offensive lineman but definitely there are some good options out there. If you guys miss our videos where we were covering all the different targets that the Vikings could be going after as far as offensive linemen, you can go and check that out on the channel as well. I think one of the names that really stood out to me was Hjalte Froholt from the Arizona Cardinals but again that's a captain and a bit more of a expensive veteran so that might be a little bit tougher to do however I still think there are some names out there and the big thing here too is that Indianapolis is not done yet as it was reported that by Rap Sheet that the Colts are open for business and likely not done and then Jordan Schultz also reporting that DeForest Buckner is actively being shopped right now by the Indianapolis Colts expecting to be moved soon if the right offer comes in now as far as Minnesota is concerned is that something that I think the Vikings would be considering not necessarily just because I think with what they have in the defensive line right now you got Jalen Redmond you got Caleb Banks you got Dominique Orange you got Levi Drake Rodriguez you got Tyrion Ingram Dawkins all those guys have been playing fairly well and the big thing here is that Minnesota has prided themselves on having a cheap defensive line they've been holding down the trenches and not having to overpay for it whereas a lot of other teams tend to do that and DeForest Buckner would be good veteran insurance don't get me wrong but what they got right now I feel like they're pretty much set with where they are as far as the trenches are concerned the edge rushers were set there if anything I don't think we need anything on the defensive side of the ball we have the number one defense in the NFL right now the only thing that's stopping us is injuries knock on wood I got to do that almost every single time I talk about that with the defense because you don't want to jinx anything of course and as well as with what they have right now like I've been saying is that you can hold down those trenches is you can limit guys i mean Jonathan Taylor one of the best backs in the league they were able to limit him pretty decently on the ground compared to what he's been doing to other teams and as well as some of the other running backs that Minnesota has gone up against so far this year next couple of weeks are going to be a huge test as far as how they can stop the run and prove if they need to go and get another defensive tackle right now i think they just sit tight on defense and if you're going to make a move go out and make it on offense because we know that the trade talks are going to start ramping up over the next couple of weeks as Alec Lewis mentioned it's probably going to be this week as well as it's expected to be a very very busy trade deadline with Jordan Schultz reporting that the NFL trade deadline could result in anywhere between 12 to 20 trades so that is going to be very appealing for Minnesota because they have a lot of interesting spots that they could be looking at they could look at offensive linemen to go and get something that Quentin Nelson uh they missed out on Quentin Nelson and you also have blocking tight end where they can go and find a solution there but Gavin Bartholomew I am impressed good sir you have been playing your butt off in the short little time since you've been back from injury and I think that Minnesota might be all right as far as going to get another blocking tight end CJ Ham, he's doing really well now he's back from concussion look at Gavin Bartholomew he's been killing it as far as filling in for Josh Oliver and getting some catches as well so I really like the idea of maybe Minnesota sitting tight even on that front because I know a lot of people are going to say well we need to fortify the offense and things like that but I think as far as blocking tight end we might be pretty much set there as far as the other positions target yeah an offensive lineman would be great and I know a lot of people are already in the comments already saying go out and get a running back damn it because we need one especially after Aaron Jones was just put uh not put on injury reserve by any means he's just day-to-day with that knee injury but like someone pointed out in one of our videos yesterday that the possibility or the investing in Aaron Jones may be staying healthy all year when he has his injury history and we've seen it over the past couple of years where Aaron Jones he's an absolute warrior and he's battling every single week to be on that field going through questionable tag after questionable tag every single week Minnesota's gotten lucky in that aspect where he hasn't had anything serious happen However, at what point are you going to walk away from the table or just say, "Hey listen, we can't afford to just keep hoping that he's going to stay healthy that he's going to keep bouncing back from these injuries? Because at some point those wheels are going to fall off. You can go through as much rough terrain as you want to go through or go through all the mountains and drive through all that, but at some point those wheels are going to fall off, and Minnesota has to be very cautious of it because with what we saw with Jordan Mason as a lead back on Sunday, not necessarily back but a 1b, but he could possibly be the lead back over the next couple of weeks. We don't necessarily know if he's going to be able to carry that expensive load of being that bell cow running back or at least taking 55 to 60 percent of the running back snaps when you could go out and get another guy who could be an absolute dog. There's Tony Pollard out there, there's Keaton Mitchell out there who's got a lot of speed. There is also the big one Jonathan Taylor but recently on Pat McAfee's show earlier today, Adam Schefter was saying that the Colts ownership does not want to trade Jonathan Taylor, but the thing here to remember folks, just because the team doesn't want to do something doesn't mean they won't do something, because yes, there's been a lot of situations where Minnesota probably didn't want to trade JJ McCarthy, but they had to in the situation that they were in or they didn't want to let Kirk Cousins go, but the price tag he was asking, they had to basically let him go. So with the Indianapolis Colts they may not want to trade Jonathan Taylor but they might have to trade Jonathan Taylor or they might end up doing it at the end of the day because at the end of the day if there's teams seeing that right there where the Colts do not want to trade for Jonathan Taylor that is where we could see teams get really kind of desperate not necessarily desperate but just starting to kind of beef up their offers where, "All right, now you don't want to trade them, but if we give them an offer you can't refuse then you have no choice but to give us Jonathan Taylor and we can take him for a pretty good deal even though we'll probably give him a first round pick for him i think for sure with where Minnesota is going to be in the first round this year if they keep winning games it is a very worthy investment to give up a first round pick for Jonathan Taylor that could immediately help this run game to go back to being what it was before uh when Jordan when Aaron Jones was even running for 90 yards a game that was looking great but it could always be better how awesome would it be if those 90 70 100 yard games are turned into 120 yard games with two touchdowns or things like that it would be a huge boost for the Vikings and we've seen over the past couple of years when they bring in a difference maker at the running back position aside from Herschel Walker that is where Minnesota really excels so that is going to be something that i think is worth kind of paying attention to not taking overly seriously is just because the Colts do not want to trade Jonathan Taylor doesn't mean that they won't we're going to drop a full video on the Jonathan Taylor stuff as I'm sure a lot more updates are going to be coming out over the course of the day as the trade deadline is really starting to heat up as we're still about a week and a half or a couple a week or so away from it where I know that a lot of teams are going to start making a lot of phone calls and hopefully Nolan Teasley is one of those guys who is very active on the phones trying to get a deal done hopefully for Jonathan Taylor if not for him maybe Tony Pollard but let us know your guys's thoughts down in the comments below if you think the Vikings missed the boat big time on Quenton Nelson or you think there's another guy out there that could do exactly what they want they would want Quentin Nelson to do but for a lot cheaper and a little bit younger let us know down in the comments below that's going to do it for this episode of Vikings Digest again thank you guys so much for liking subscribing hitting that bell icon so you don't miss the episodes when they drop and if you did miss our live stream we did during that Colts game on Sunday I will link it in the description down below so you guys can go and check that out it was a lot of fun and we're going to bring you guys a lot more of those as the year goes on that's going to do it for this episode i've been your host griffin take care