When you think of the Minnesota Vikings, they have a history of really interesting trades.
They have been on the end of some really good ones, including trading away both Percy Harvin and Stefon Diggs, plus the two moves down in the top 10 with the Cleveland Browns that netted the Vikings free picks on day three for moving down just one spot.
Of course, the one trade that everyone remembers is the Herschel Walker trade. It didn't work for a myriad of reasons, mainly due to the overvaluation of the players sent over in the trade, having conditional draft picks attached to them. The Cowboys didn't want the players, they cut them and used the picks to build the last dynasty before the salary cap.
Vikings worst trade of last 10 years is off base
Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox put together a list of each team's worst trade over the last 10 years, and he picked a really interesting one, and likely not one you are thinking of.
Knox picked the Vikings trading for Sam Bradford ahead of the 2016 season.
In panic mode, then-GM Rick Spielman traded for Bradford. Of course, the 2010 first overall pick (by the Rams) had his own lengthy injury history—including torn ACLs in 2013 and 2014—which is why the Eagles traded up for Carson Wentz in the 2016 draft and were willing to move Bradford afterward.
The Vikings surrendered a 2017 first-round pick and a conditional 2018 fourth-round pick. That's a lot for an oft-injured player who clearly wasn't considered Philly's QB of the future. In return, Minnesota got 17 starts over two seasons out of Bradford.
Bradford did play some of the best ball of his career in 2016, posting a 99.3 QB rating and going 7-8 as a starter. However, he couldn't get Minnesota back to the postseason that year, and he played just two games the following year before undergoing season-ending knee surgery. Keenum took over and helped Minnesota reach the NFC Championship Game.
There needs to be a lot of context here. The Vikings needed to acquire a quarterback badly because they didn't have a good enough insurance policy for Teddy Bridgewater, who had his knee dislocated during a practice at the end of August. Shaun Hill wasn't a good enough backup, so the Vikings had to pivot.
To be fair to the Vikings, that guy could have been Taylor Heinicke, but he was dealing with a major ankle injury he suffered trying to get into his apartment.
While the Vikings did end up giving up a first-round pick, along with a fourth-round pick the following season, the trade wasn't that bad. Bradford was really good, but injuries to his knee caught up to him. It's also far from the worst trade they made in the last decade.
Multiple other trades the Vikings made were worse. Some will point to general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah trading down in the first round in 2022, but the trade down was fair, the results just stunk. That isn't one that should qualify.
You could consider the Yannick Ngakoue trade, where the Vikings gave up second-round and fifth-round picks, but they curbed their losses quickly when the season went kaput and got back third-round and fifth-round picks a few weeks into the season. Oh, Ngakoue still led the team in sacks.
However, there were two other moves that should have been included, even if they were lower-level moves.
The Vikings gave up a fifth-round pick for kicker/punter hybrid Kaare Vedvik in 2019. He looked really good for the Baltimore Ravens, and they didn't have room to keep him. The theory was that the Vikings gave up the pick so they didn't have to fight for Vedvik on waivers.
Unfortunately, he only lasted a couple of weeks before the Vikings waived him themselves. They essentially gave up a fifth-round pick for a tryout and it bombed.
The other that was worse ended up being a trade for Chris Herndon at roster cutdowns in the 2021 season. They ended up making the move after Irv Smith Jr. had a bucket-handle meniscus repair that ended his season. The hope was the fourth-year tight end could end up being a stop-gap replacement for a regime that was trying to save their jobs.
Well, it ended up being a disaster, as Herndon barely played, and when he did, it was a massive dud. It just didn't work for the Vikings, and finding a tight end could have been a big difference maker.
Were either of those trades big capital like the Bradford deal? Absolutely not. However, they were massive duds that provided nothing positive. Bradford had quite a few excellent games for the Vikings, so it would be hard to call that one the worst with some good candidates.
