The Minnesota Vikings are among a handful of teams that may yet be interested in making a big offseason acquisition.
Minnesota said goodbye to three of the secondary’s five starters during free agency and will attempt to replace them with a patchwork of relatively inexperienced and unproven players. The Vikings chose to continue committing the bulk of their assets to improving in the trenches, selecting former Ohio State offensive guard Donovan Jackson in the first round rather than a defensive back.
The team’s current roster configuration potentially argues for exploring a trade with the Miami Dolphins for star cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey and the Dolphins mutually and publicly agreed this offseason that parting ways is the best path forward.
Ramsey will play next season at 31. He is a seven-time Pro Bowler and a three-time First-Team All-Pro. However, given his $72 million contract, which runs through 2028 and carries a cap spike in 2026, plus the fact that he is on the wrong side of 30, means that the Dolphins shouldn’t expect a premium draft asset in return.
Minnesota could probably get in the game for Ramsey with a Day-2 pick. NFL.com projects that the Vikings will receive compensatory picks in the third and fifth rounds from the league in 2026 due to significant losses in free agency that include quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones.
In our trade proposal, the Vikings commit to sending their original third-round pick (wherever it falls will be ahead of the projected compensatory selection) to Miami in exchange for Ramsey and his significant contract.
Vikings’ Style Not Typically to Trade for Pricey Veterans
Minnesota general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah came up in the NFL on the analytics side of the game. The type of roster building associated with his philosophies focuses on remaining as young and inexpensive at as many positions as possible by amassing draft picks and using them wisely, so as to acquire as many productive starters on rookie-scale contracts as possible.
That said, free agency and the trade market will always be a part of championship roster building, and they become more vital and more common for analytics-rooted organizations once those teams become contenders.
Vikings detractors can make the argument that Minnesota hasn’t reached that level just yet, as the Los Angeles Rams bounced them in embarrassing fashion in the first round of the playoffs. But Minnesota went 14-3 during the regular season and lost four games total including the playoffs. Of the team’s four losses, two came to the Rams and two came to the Detroit Lions.
Trading for Jalen Ramsey Makes Sense if Front Office Believes Vikings Ready for Super Bowl Run
The Vikings bested every other opponent they faced all year and are bringing back all of their star skill-position players, save for Darnold. The team will transition to second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy as its starter in 2025, who represents the biggest unknown across the organization.
Minnesota also added two new starters to the interior of the offensive line and two interior defensive linemen to the mix during free agency, addressing perhaps its two biggest weaknesses from 2024.
If Adofo-Mensah believes in McCarthy’s ability to lead the franchise on a deep run in his first year as a starter, a play for a talent like Ramsey to shore up a depleted unit could make sense. Doing so will cost a valuable draft pick, though not an extremely valuable one, and the money on Ramsey’s deal going forward will be worth it if he proves a vital missing piece to the Vikings’ Super Bowl formula.
