While there have been plenty of big moves made during this 2026 NFL offseason, the biggest was undoubtedly made by the Los Angeles Rams, who recently made a trade with the Cleveland Browns to acquire two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett.
His arrival undoubtedly shakes up the NFC something fierce and makes Sean McVay & Co. the favorites to represent the conference in Super Bowl 61 at SoFi Stadium next February.
As one would imagine, the trade had plenty of pundits looking back on some of the more memorable deals in NFL history, with one example being Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports, who recently took the time to give his thoughts to rank what he believes to be the 10 greatest trades of all time.
Now, go ahead and brace yourselves, Minnesota Vikings fans, because you likely already know where this is headed, as the No. 1 entry on DeArdo's list is the infamous trade then-executive vice president and general manager Mike Lynn made with the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 to acquire running back Herschel Walker.
Minnesota Vikings helped Dallas Cowboys kickstart their 1990s dynasty with the Herschel Walker trade
In 1989, the Cowboys were in full rebuilding mode. After a dreadful 3-13 campaign in 1988, the team was sold in early '89 to Jerry Jones, who quickly fired Tom Landry, the only head coach the franchise had ever known, and replaced him with Jimmy Johnson, with whom he'd been teammates in college at the University of Arkansas.
Jones also fired longtime GM Tex Schramm and assumed control of all football matters, control he still has to this day.
The Vikings, meanwhile, entered the '89 season coming off a pair of deep playoff runs, making the NFC Championship Game in 1987, losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Washington Commanders (they had the other name back then, of course), and then making the Divisional Round in 1988, losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers.
Lynn seemingly felt the Vikings were only a player away from reaching the next level, and with Minnesota effectively utilizing a platoon system at running back, a guy like Herschel Walker certainly fit the bill, as the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner had earned Pro Bowl and Second-Team All-Pro selections in both 1987 and 1988, rushing for a career-high 1,514 yards in the latter campaign, good for second in the league behind only Indianapolis Colts superstar Eric Dickerson (1,659).
So, when the Cowboys put Walker on the block in early October after an 0-5 start, the Vikings bit. The basic terms didn't look all that bad for Minnesota, as the Vikes were set to receive Walker, third-, fifth- and 10th-round selections in 1990, and a 1991 third-rounder from Dallas, while the Cowboys would get five players in linebackers Jesse Solomon and David Howard, defensive end Alex Stewart, running back Darrin Nelson, cornerback Issiac Holt and Minnesota's first, second, and sixth-round picks in 1990. It was a haul, yes, but it was about to get so much worse.
What some may not be aware of is that each of those five players coming over from Minnesota came with a conditional draft pick if they were released or traded before February 1, 1990. And the Cowboys took full advantage of this, as Johnson refused to start any of them, even though they were all basically better than what Dallas had on the roster.
For starters, Nelson flat-out refused to go to Big D, at which point the then-San Diego Chargers got involved, with the Cowboys sending him to the Bolts in exchange for a 1990 fifth-rounder, which Dallas then sent to the Vikings. And the other four players were all gone before that aforementioned deadline as well, thus giving Dallas eight total draft picks when all was said and done:
- Vikings' 1st round pick in 1990
- Vikings' 2nd round pick in 1990
- Vikings' 6th round pick in 1990
- Vikings' 1st round pick in 1991 (conditional on cutting Solomon)
- Vikings' 2nd round pick in 1991 (conditional on cutting Howard)
- Vikings' 1st round pick in 1992 (conditional on cutting Holt)
- Vikings' 2nd round pick in 1992Â (condition met by trading away Nelson)
- Vikings' 3rd round pick in 1992 (conditional on cutting Stewart)
The Cowboys, who ultimately went just 1-15 in 1989, went on to make other deals with other teams with some of those picks, and while we won't go through every player they selected, the four most notable names to come out of everything were running back Emmitt Smith, safety Darren Woodson, defensive tackle Russell Maryland, and cornerback Kevin Smith, all of whom helped America's Team win three Super Bowls in the four-season stretch from 1992 to 1995.
The Vikings, meanwhile, had good reason to believe the trade was a success at the start, as Walker stepped in and made an immediate impact, rushing for 148 yards on just 18 carries in his Minnesota debut to help the purple and gold to a 26-14 win over the rival Green Bay Packers. But that was basically the high point.
While the Vikes went on to post a 10-6 record to win the NFC Central, they again fell to the 49ers in the Divisional Round, with Walker tallying just 29 yards in the 41-13 defeat. And after Minnesota failed to make the playoffs in each of the next two seasons, campaigns in which the 1982 Heisman winner failed to crack the 1,000-yard mark, Walker skipped town and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles.
And after three years in the City of Brotherly Love and one season with the New York Giants, Walker ended his career playing two seasons with none other than the Cowboys. So, the greatest trade in history? Sure, for Dallas. But for the Vikings? Yeah, not so much.
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