Will the Minnesota Vikings bolster its wide receiver group before the Nov. 1 NFL trade deadline? If they were sign someone like Odell Beckham Jr. they don’t have to worry about the deadline, but what about a player who is on the trade block like Houston’s Brandin Cooks?
Purple Insider’s Matthew Coller says Cooks “might be the best possible fit for the Vikings.”
“He’s another type of guy with Los Angeles Rams connections that really thrived as a member of the Rams in that offense. The price tag, that’s a hard thing to figure out, but the Texans have no reason to keep him. Can the Vikings create enough cap space to afford him?” Coller said.
Minnesota is dead last in cap space, with OverTheCap reporting they’re working with just over $850,000. And trading for Cooks doesn’t require just paying the remaining balance of his $9.7 million cap number, it also requires taking on the $26.6 and $24.4 million cap hits he carries in 2023 and 2024.
The Vikings would either need the Texans to eat some of his remaining salary this season or find a way to restructure his deal, or another player’s current contract to afford him now.
One way or another, it’s apparent that the Vikings could use more speed on the field.
“One of the things the Vikings are missing is a deep threat,” said Coller. “Right now, all that defenses are doing is putting a safety over the top of Justin Jefferson. Even though Jefferson has had a lot of success this year, it’s been a lot in the intermediate areas and a lot of the underneath stuff and he’s had to create yards after catch.”
That’s why Beckham’s name has been intriguing for Vikings fans. He’s likely going to be ready to play within the next month following surgery to repair the torn ACL he suffered in the Super Bowl with the Rams last season.
“It’s hard to deny what a good fit he would be. Not only is it the Los Angeles offense that he thrived in, but it’s also an offense that takes attention so much toward Jefferson that you could see him being open all day long and he’s a guy that can win one on one, which I think is what this offense really asks its wide receivers to do,” explained Coller.
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