During the first night of the Draft, we learned something that ultimately couldn’t be confirmed enough to become an official PFT blurb.
According to the unconfirmed rumor, the Vikings were trying to trade up to the No. 5 spot with the Chargers. With the aim of cutting the line against the Giants. With the goal of drafting not a quarterback, but LSU receiver Malik Nabers.
It would have huge implications, as it would have given the Vikings a trio of first-round receivers and no clear answer at quarterback. Once again, we were never able to get it done. (I mentioned it during one of the draft night videos, after news of the effort reached PFT headquarters.) Sunday, near the end of a Sunday column by Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press covering multiple aspects and angles of Minnesota, seems like impressive propaganda.
“Pssst,” Waters writes. “There were rumors at the time of the draft that the Vikings wanted to move from No. 11 to No. 5, not to draft a quarterback but to get LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers, who was taken No. 6 by the Giants. “If that trade had happened, Jefferson would have been traded and Nabers would have been the No. 1 receiver.”
That’s the kind of information that would be much more credible if it were the subject of a stand-alone article that fully and completely fleshed out the situation. That said, Pioneer Press surely has editorial standards that would have forced them to a comfort level before allowing such an important statement to be printed.
The first part of the report is equivocal, citing “rumors” that the Vikings “wanted” to move to the No. 5 spot. The ending is unequivocal and clear: “If that trade had happened, Jefferson would have been traded.”
“Great if it’s true”, as some like to say. In this specific case, it’s huge if it’s true. Not just because it talks about an alternate universe that almost happened, but because Jefferson is still a Viking and continues without a new deal.
Until you do, anything can happen. You can sign a new contract. It can be negotiated. The Vikings can play the “you’re under contract” game for 2024, kick the can down the road until 2025, apply the franchise tag and figure it out then.
In any case, their long-term future cannot and will not be assured until an agreement is reached. As we said earlier this week on PFT Live (clip attached), the team is sending mixed signals about its intentions with Jefferson, proclaiming to the world, on the one hand, that they will keep him while, on the other, watching his price rise. increases. up and up and up as other receivers not named Justin Jefferson sign bigger and bigger deals.
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