3 trades the Vikings should have made before this year’s deadline

Everson Griffen – DE (Detroit Lions)

After a few games with the Dallas Cowboys, Everson Griffen was put on the trade block before this season’s deadline.

With the Vikings dealing Yannick Ngakoue to the Baltimore Ravens, some hoped Minnesota would have been one of the teams that attempted to make a trade with the Cowboys to acquire Griffen.

Dallas did eventually agree to deal him to a team in the NFC North, but it wasn’t to the Vikings. The Lions swooped in and sent a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft to the Cowboys to acquire Griffen’s services.

As disappointing as it was to see that Minnesota wasn’t able to bring him back to the Twin Cities, it’s even more disappointing for some to find out that he will be playing for a division rival instead.

With Ngkaoue gone and Danielle Hunter done for the rest of the season due to a neck injury, the Vikings should have been a little more willing to give up a late-round draft pick to acquire Griffen. He already knows Minnesota’s defensive system and he would have provided some veteran leadership for a very young and inexperienced Vikings defense.

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Instead, Minnesota will attempt to make sure their old friend doesn’t help his new team defeat them when Detroit travels to face the Vikings on Sunday inside U.S. Bank Stadium.