According to Jason La Canfora, multiple team executives who have talked to the Vikings recently believe the team is looking to trade a number of high-priced veteran players.
The sense is the Vikings would be open to trading S Harrison Smith, TE Kyle Rudolph and LT Riley Reiff ahead of next week’s deadline.
“They want to move on from some guys for sure but not the guys we want,” one general manager told La Canfora. “They want to cut payroll but I don’t know how successful they’ll be with that.”
La Canfora says league sources have told him Minnesota could even be willing to part with WR Adam Thielen, though that is far less likely than the previous three players. Rudolph in particular came up as someone the Vikings would be willing to move.
“They try to push Rudolph but the guy we want is (Irv) Smith,” one GM said. “They don’t want to trade the young guys. But, yeah, they will push out more salary if they can.”
The Vikings have started the 2020 season 1-5 after having hopes of contending for a playoff berth and just traded away DE Yannick Ngakoue this past week after trading a second-round pick for him merely two months ago.
Rudolph, 30, is a former second-round pick of the Vikings back in 2011. He was entering the final year of his five-year, $36,500,000 contract and set to make a base salary of $7,275,000 for the 2019 season when he signed a four-year, $36 million extension in 2019.
Rudolph is set to make base salaries of $7.65 million and $8.45 million the next two seasons.
In 2020, Rudolph has appeared in six games for the Vikings and caught 10 passes for 123 yards receiving and one touchdown.
Smith, 31, is in the fifth year of a six-year, $56.53 million contract that included $28.578 million guaranteed, and a $10 million signing bonus and is set to make a base salary of $8.35 million in 2020.
Smith is scheduled to make a $9.85 million base salary in 2021, the final year of his deal.
In 2020, Smith has appeared in six games for the Vikings and recorded 25 total tackles, one interception and two pass defenses. ProFootballFocus rates him as the No. 12 overall safety out of 80 qualifying players.
Reiff, 31, is a former first-round pick by the Lions in the 2012 NFL Draft. He finished his four-year, $7,993,700 rookie contract with Detroit and another made $8,070,000 under his fifth-year option.
Reiff signed a five-year, $58.75 million deal with the Vikings as an unrestricted free agent in 2017. He was entering the fourth year of the deal and was set to make base salaries of $10.9 million and $11.65 million the next two seasons when Minnesota forced him to take a pay cut entering the 2020 season.
In 2020, Reiff has start six games for the Vikings. Pro Football Focus graded him as the No. 48 overall tackle out of 76 qualifying players.
We’ll have more on the Vikings as the news is available.
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
