2026 Vikings Season

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Super dumb. 

I'm less sure it's dumb.  If he gets hurt down the stretch.. huge blunder.

If not, it is entirely possible they have more buyers than they do now.  (Cap room, pick certainty, doe-eyed dreams of contention, etc)

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Ha, yeah, they'll probably put him on the IR now, just like the Cardinals did last year. 

I'm sure he'll enjoy playing for the Jets in 2027 though.

Come on.  What did NYJ do for this?

[Mike Sixel]

34 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

I'm less sure it's dumb.  If he gets hurt down the stretch.. huge blunder.

If not, it is entirely possible they have more buyers than they do now.  (Cap room, pick certainty, doe-eyed dreams of contention, etc)

Fair. It is different than baseball, but the injury risk....

[flpmagikat]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

I'm less sure it's dumb.  If he gets hurt down the stretch.. huge blunder.

If not, it is entirely possible they have more buyers than they do now.  (Cap room, pick certainty, doe-eyed dreams of contention, etc)

The team also makes more money this year with him. Clearly he has a good relationship with the community.

[Mike Sixel]

13 minutes ago, flpmagikat said:

The team also makes more money this year with him. Clearly he has a good relationship with the community.

No one is buying more tickets or anything else if he's there this year, IMO......I can't imagine he makes as much money the rest of this year as they are paying him. Now, next year? Maybe? But I think MOST people go to see a winner (or their team that they go to no matter what). I could be wrong!

[flpmagikat]

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

No one is buying more tickets or anything else if he's there this year, IMO......I can't imagine he makes as much money the rest of this year as they are paying him. Now, next year? Maybe? But I think MOST people go to see a winner (or their team that they go to no matter what). I could be wrong!

I agree most people will pay to see a winner, and that makes the biggest impact. But if your team is losing, fans will come out to see a beloved great player finish out their time. And based on his interviews leading up to the deadline it sounds like he’s loved the fans and franchise despite being mediocre or terrible most of the time. So I imagine it sells some more tickets and concessions and all that, and then gives them better trade options in the off season.

[Vanimal46]

Meeting up and talking about this with other friends... I like the idea of this trade even more. The Vikings of course needed to make this trade now to provide any sort of hope the rest of the season. It is very clear the status quo was going to result in a disaster for the offense. 

Now that we have Kirk at this stage of his career, he can be the veteran mentor here until he retires... Since we owe a $10 million roster bonus it probably wouldn't take much more to extend him another year so he can be the veteran bridge after we draft a new QB. 

[TheLeviathan]

57 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Meeting up and talking about this with other friends... I like the idea of this trade even more. The Vikings of course needed to make this trade now to provide any sort of hope the rest of the season. It is very clear the status quo was going to result in a disaster for the offense. 

Now that we have Kirk at this stage of his career, he can be the veteran mentor here until he retires... Since we owe a $10 million roster bonus it probably wouldn't take much more to extend him another year so he can be the veteran bridge after we draft a new QB. 

If nothing else...it's fun.  Way more fun than torching a 3rd rounder on some player we healthy scratch next year anyway.

[Aggies7]

3 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Meeting up and talking about this with other friends... I like the idea of this trade even more. The Vikings of course needed to make this trade now to provide any sort of hope the rest of the season. It is very clear the status quo was going to result in a disaster for the offense. 

Now that we have Kirk at this stage of his career, he can be the veteran mentor here until he retires... Since we owe a $10 million roster bonus it probably wouldn't take much more to extend him another year so he can be the veteran bridge after we draft a new QB. 

Kind of a dumb question I guess, but if wentz balled out last night, do they still make this move?  I suppose getting him for a late third rounder would still have been to good to pass up. Plus they probably had little to no faith in him coming in Anyway. But amazing to think about considering Wentz had the second worst performance of any Vikings quarterback ever. Did it have to look as bad as it did to help facilitate this move in some way? You’d have thought the asking price went up after last nights happenings. Maybe it did?

[The Great Hambino]

11 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

Kind of a dumb question I guess, but if wentz balled out last night, do they still make this move?  I suppose getting him for a late third rounder would still have been to good to pass up. Plus they probably had little to no faith in him coming in Anyway. But amazing to think about considering Wentz had the second worst performance of any Vikings quarterback ever. Did it have to look as bad as it did to help facilitate this move in some way? You’d have thought the asking price went up after last nights happenings. Maybe it did?

I think that if Wentz had been an improvement over the typical 2026 Murray performance, the Vikings woulda held.  They coulda sold it to fans (and maybe themselves as well) as something to build on moving forward, think what a full week of prep as the starter would do, etc. etc.  I really don't think they wanted to give up any future draft capital if they didn't have to.  

As it turned out, they had to.  So I don't think Wentz had to be that bad to convince them to pull the trigger on a trade, but it certainly helped leave no doubt.

Another question:  if they hadn't put themselves in a position where a QB trade was necessary, or if Wentz had shown mild competence, would they have ended up pivoting to and ponying up for Taylor?

[Vanimal46]

15 minutes ago, The Great Hambino said:

Another question:  if they hadn't put themselves in a position where a QB trade was necessary, or if Wentz had shown mild competence, would they have ended up pivoting to and ponying up for Taylor?

The Colts seemed pretty set on keeping Taylor for whatever reason. I'm looking at their decimated WR room and wondering how they're going to win another game this season with LaQuon Treadwell as their WR 2...

[nicksaviking]

17 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Fair. It is different than baseball, but the injury risk....

Very true.

Which in my book means the Eagles are 10x dumber than the Colts since they didn't trade the chronically injured Saquon Barkley. He looks like he's barely hanging on at this point, but a contender still would have been happy to give up something for him.

[nicksaviking]

3 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

The Colts seemed pretty set on keeping Taylor for whatever reason. I'm looking at their decimated WR room and wondering how they're going to win another game this season with LaQuon Treadwell as their WR 2...

I think he's the top dog there as long as Alec Pierce is out.

And I don't think Alec Pierce is actually a #1; all he can do is run go routes. In any case, their most talented WR was Josh Downs, and Daniel Jones couldn't get him the ball anyway. Whatever number of defenders were in the box to stop Taylor before, the Colts can probably count on adding another one on top of that now.

[nicksaviking]

15 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Meeting up and talking about this with other friends... I like the idea of this trade even more. The Vikings of course needed to make this trade now to provide any sort of hope the rest of the season. It is very clear the status quo was going to result in a disaster for the offense. 

Now that we have Kirk at this stage of his career, he can be the veteran mentor here until he retires... Since we owe a $10 million roster bonus it probably wouldn't take much more to extend him another year so he can be the veteran bridge after we draft a new QB. 

Yes, same thing happened to me last night; thinking of the numerous ways this could be a help not only now but next year if he's back. He seems more than fine being both a bridge QB and a mentor now. I feel way better (not great) thinking that the Vikings could end up picking a late round 1 QB now. 

[Vanimal46]

5 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I think he's the top dog there as long as Alec Pierce is out.

And I don't think Alec Pierce is actually a #1; all he can do is run go routes. In any case, their most talented WR was Josh Downs, and Daniel Jones couldn't get him the ball anyway. Whatever number of defenders were in the box to stop Taylor before, the Colts can probably count on adding another one on top of that now.

I don't understand their thought process with Taylor... Do they plan on running him into the ground again this season then expect a similar return (reportedly a 2 and 4) in the offseason? He's already close to hitting the RB wall - dude entered the league with almost 1,000 touches at Wisconsin, and now has close to 2,000 touches in the NFL. I don't see him having longevity like Derrick Henry. 

[The Great Hambino]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

I don't understand their thought process with Taylor... Do they plan on running him into the ground again this season then expect a similar return (reportedly a 2 and 4) in the offseason? He's already close to hitting the RB wall - dude entered the league with almost 1,000 touches at Wisconsin, and now has close to 2,000 touches in the NFL. I don't see him having longevity like Derrick Henry. 

Maybe they don't want to make any massive decisions that would affect future seasons until they have a permanent GM in place?  Nelson was expiring so I don't count that move. 

It's not a great reason, probably not even a good reason, but it is a reason

[nicksaviking]

55 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

I don't understand their thought process with Taylor... Do they plan on running him into the ground again this season then expect a similar return (reportedly a 2 and 4) in the offseason? He's already close to hitting the RB wall - dude entered the league with almost 1,000 touches at Wisconsin, and now has close to 2,000 touches in the NFL. I don't see him having longevity like Derrick Henry. 

Well I congratulated the Colts on being wise and firing the GM while dealing with the coach in the off season. Maybe this is the downside to that. Because Steichen surely knows the only way to save his job is to start winning a bunch of games ASAP and he's got zero shot at that without Taylor. Steichen possibly has no say in the matter, but that won't stop him from lobbying, and mis-representing the entire situation. "We can get just as much in the off season!" "We'll lose the locker room!" "Fans won't show up to the games!"

So thinking about this more, the fact that the Titans didn't trade Pollard is probably even more questionable, because Robert Salah JUST got hired, and the Titans GM is only in year two, so they probably have more job security. 

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Well I congratulated the Colts on being wise and firing the GM while dealing with the coach in the off season. Maybe this is the downside to that. Because Steichen surely knows the only way to save his job is to start winning a bunch of games ASAP and he's got zero shot at that without Taylor. Steichen possibly has no say in the matter, but that won't stop him from lobbying, and mis-representing the entire situation. "We can get just as much in the off season!" "We'll lose the locker room!" "Fans won't show up to the games!"

So thinking about this more, the fact that the Titans didn't trade Pollard is probably even more questionable, because Robert Salah JUST got hired, and the Titans GM is only in year two, so they probably have more job security. 

True on the Titans.