The Minnesota Vikings put one of the best defenses in the NFL on the field during the 2024 season. Could they now possibly be in on adding the league’s best singular defensive player?
Myles Garrett, the two-time Sporting News NFL Defensive Player of the Year of the Cleveland Browns, has reportedly requested a trade from the team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2017.
While potential trade packages for Garrett would be massive, SN’s Vinnie Iyer named Minnesota as a potential landing spot if the superstar EDGE rusher gets moved this offseason.
Here was Iyer’s take on the developing situation:
Given he’s only 29, Garrett can keep delivering at a game-changing level. Rising contenders such as the Lions, Commanders, Vikings, 49ers, and Texans (representing Garrett’s home state) can all make a deal for him work from a financial standpoint.
The Browns are sitting on the No. 2 overall pick in 2025 NFL draft. They should be looking for another first-round pick in return for Garrett for starters. It would be tough to ask teams to part with more than one first-rounder, but Cleveland can push to get some for the future and also call for additional second-rounder now.
Garrett’s contract — he has two years left on a five-year, $125 million deal signed back in 2020 — is extremely reasonable for an annual Defensive Player of the Year candidate (though, a monster extension would likely be included in a trade). Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has never been afraid to pick up the phone when it comes to trades, and if you have a chance to acquire Garrett, it would be franchise malpractice not to at least explore what a deal with Cleveland would look like.
With that said, Minnesota’s situation entering the new league year makes the Vikings feel like the biggest longshot of the potential buyers Iyer mentioned. While the Vikings have cap space in spades, they have depleted draft capital and a stacked depth chart at EDGE rusher featuring Pro Bowler Jonathan Greenard, All-Pro Andrew Van Ginkel, and No. 17 overall draft pick Dallas Turner.
Complicating matters further for Minnesota this offseason is a long list of pending free agents, including names like Byron Murphy Jr., Cam Bynum, Aaron Jones, Sam Darnold and 10 starters total from the Vikings’ Wild-Card playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Iyer pointed out a solid trade comp for Garrett, via ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The Chicago Bears acquired Khalil Mack, a second-round pick and a conditional fifth-rounder from the Raiders for two first-round picks, a third-rounder, and a sixth-rounder in 2018. Even a scaled down version of that deal would be problematic for a Vikings team with just four projected selections in the 2025 NFL Draft. And while he served a part-time role as a rookie, it’s hard to see Minnesota offering the 22-year-old Turner and future picks in a trade, even for a superstar like Garrett.
While this is a fun hypothetical to discuss, Garrett to Minnesota unfortunately feels like a round peg, square hole situation entering the new league year.
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