Decision Day Lingers

On Tuesday, November 10th, the NFL arrives at decision day. Safe to say that the Minnesota Vikings are among the most fascinating teams to monitor.

Forced to guess, I’d say most fans are feeling anxious and unsettled despite the sizzling start to the season. The 6-1 NFC North squad has seen the pressure get turned up more despite not playing yesterday. All of Chicago, Green Bay, and Detroit walked away with wins in their back pockets yesterday. As a result, the 6-1 Vikings are being hunted by the 7-2 Bears, 6-2 Lions, and 6-3 Packers. The entire division sits in a playoff spot.

Clearly, the Minnesota Vikings are in a tough spot.

Decision Day Lingers as MIN Preps for MNF

Part of what’s making things even tougher is that other NFC squads have made significant additions. As in, genuinely significant moves that make these teams considerably more dangerous. Seattle got Quenton Nelson, San Francisco got DeForest Buckner, and Chicago got Jeffery Simmons.

An arms race that has made the NFC’s trenches much tougher.

Another factor to consider is that Baltimore swooped in to snag Jacoby Brissett from the Cardinals. Doing so lessened the available passer on the trade market if Minnesota is indeed interested in picking up somebody who can compete for that QB1 spot.

In the next day and a half, expect lots of chatter surrounding Kirk Cousins.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter sent word of Las Vegas and Kirk Cousins: “As of this weekend, the Raiders had not received any trade inquiries regarding their starting quarterback Kirk Cousins, nor are they interested in dealing him, per league sources. They plan to keep sticking with him until they believe their No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza is ready.”

The Raiders got walloped on Sunday, dropping them down to 4-5 within a competitive AFC West division that sees Denver at 7-2 and Kansas City at 6-2.

And, to be clear, Schefter’s words mean essentially nothing. Now, that’s not to say that the Schefter report isn’t accurate. Rather, it’s to point out the obvious that words come cheap in the NFL. Having a “plan” means very little once reality arrives. All that’s being said in that Schefter update is that Cousins isn’t going to be given away for nothing, so any buying team needs to come prepared with a beefy offer.

Otherwise, there are rumors aplenty ranging from players such as QB Daniel Jones, RB Jonathan Taylor, LG Ben Bredeson, RB Alvin Kamara, and surely many others. Part of the problem is that springing a leak at QB means not being able to shore up other areas of need, but this is where the Vikings find themselves.

So far, the Vikings have made a single in-season trade: moving J.J. McCarthy to the New York Giants. That’s a decision that has been aging terribly.

Otherwise, the news brought an update of Minnesota and San Francisco agreeing to a deal with Jauan Jennings. The issue? Just that the player himself was given input, so the deal didn’t go through due to him wanting to stick around in Minnesota (something Vikings Territory has since been able to confirm).

The point is merely to highlight an obvious but easy-to-miss detail: the pair of deals — one complete, the other close to getting completed — both involved Minnesota looking to sell. Don’t discount the possibility of that approach. Young guys like receiver Tai Felton and safety Jakobe Thomas aren’t trending in a positive direction.

The Minnesota Vikings will host the Buffalo Bills tonight on Monday Night Football. Dropping the game will make things uncomfortably tight in the NFC North.

Decision day will follow on Tuesday, November 10th.