Report: Vikings Tried To Trade Up To No. 8 For Justin Fields

The Carolina Panthers recently posted a video of their draft room that shows them receiving calls from interested teams in the first round. One of the teams to reach out to Carolina about a trade-up was the Vikings, who were offering a package of picks to move up from No. 14 overall.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, citing a league source, reports that the Vikings were specifically targeting OSU QB Justin Fields.

Despite the interest from the Vikings, the Panthers opted to hold on to the pick and select CB Jaycee Horn while Fields fell down the board before the Bears made the decision to trade up to No. 11 overall for him.

Florio believes the Vikings’ interest in trading up for Fields leaves incumbent starter Kirk Cousins with at most two years left in Minnesota. Cousins is owed $21 million in 2021 and $35 million over the next two years and he has made it known that he isn’t interested in extending his current deal beyond that.

The Vikings ultimately selected Kellen Mond in round three and Florio mentions that the Vikings could at least consider the possibility of trading Cousins after the 2021 season and move forward with Mond.

This, of course, would require Mond to be ready to take over as the starter, but Cousins would need to hold trade value with a good showing in 2021.

Should Cousins struggle this season, Minnesota could move on to Mond and keep Cousins as a high-paid backup, considering that it’s unlikely he would have much trade value at that point and Mond’s salary would be the lowest in the NFL. 

We’ll have more regarding the Vikings as the news is available.