Trent Williams is a 7-time Pro Bowl left tackle and the 31-year-old star is reportedly on the Vikings’ radar to one degree or another.
According to ESPN’s John Keim, the Vikings “have show interest in adding Williams,” who was teammates with Kirk Cousins in Washington from 2012 to 2017. Keim notes that Washington has “pegged teams in the so-called window to win now” as possible trade partners. Keim wrote:
“To maximize this window, the Vikings could bolster their offensive line. Reiff has been decent, but he’ll count $13.2 million against the cap this season. If Minnesota cut or traded Reiff, it would recoup $8.8 million in cap space. That would leave the Vikings room to acquire Williams. If they wanted to keep Reiff, they could slide him inside, but would then need to find another way to create cap room — perhaps by trading safety Anthony Harris, who will make $11.4 million on the franchise tag.”
Minnesota currently has approximately $13.1 million cap space, according to Over The Cap. Williams comes with a 2020 cap charge of $14.5 million, meaning trading for him would almost certainly require the Vikings to make sacrifices.
It’s been reported that the Vikings are open to trading Harris, a star safety whom the Vikings franchise-tagged for $11.4 million. That would help offset most of Williams’ salary in a trade, but losing Harris would put another hole in a Vikings secondary that has already lost Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes, Mackensie Alexander, Jayron Kearse and Andrew Sendejo in free agency.
What’s more is that trading for Williams would likely need to be coupled with a contract extension since Williams is not signed beyond 2020.
Then there’s the Dalvin Cook situation. Will the Vikings be able to trade for Williams, sign him to an extension, and extend Cook, who is entering the final year of his rookie deal?
Keeping Cook probably won’t be a bargain considering the market price could be set pretty high by any one of the stars from the loaded 2017 draft class signing an extension. That class includes Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, Joe Mixon, Aaron Jones, Leonard Fournette, James Conner, Kareem Hunt and Cook.
Throw in the fact that Minnesota still has to sign its draft class (13 picks), finding money for everyone will require some magic by Rob Brzezinski, the executive vice president of football operations who has a history of pulling rabbits out of his hat to make the roster and contracts work.
