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medaille said:
To me this is a comparison that is being made
inappropriately, because you need to separate the end results from the trade
itself and no one is looking at the trade itself, they are looking at the end
results. The correct trade for the
Vikings is that the Vikings shouldn’t have traded Diggs at all. The reason the Vikings shouldn’t have traded
Diggs is that you are taking a known high quality player and replacing them
with an unknown draft pick. I’m sure someone
deep into analytics like Kwesi could spit out a detailed analysis into the
value of Diggs, vs the expected value of money and draft picks, but I think the
odds are that we lost the value equation by getting rid of Diggs. Obviously Jefferson is on track to be an all
decade/HOF caliber receiver and that’s great, but the reality is that was a
very unlikely outcome.
Secondly, I think it’s inappropriate in the sense that it
makes it sound like it was a consensual trade between two willing
partners. The Vikings didn’t choose to
trade Diggs shortly after resigning him to an extension. He forced himself out. We shouldn’t be patting ourselves on the back
too hard for making a trade when the choice was made for us and selecting the 4th
or 5th WR in that draft.
For me, I’m just happy that things turned out well.
Minny65 begins to hit the nail on the head. Diggs didn't want to be with the vikings anymore for whatever reason, thinking he was going to be best utilized with the vikings for his career. Whether that was Zimmer or not who knows. At that point you have a disgruntled player. They either leave once their contract is done and all you receive is a comp pick, or you trade them. The Vikings elected to trade him.
Now, for the first 4 years we will have greatly won the trade. We have received similar or better production, with a much younger player on a much lower contract. If you have a high salary QB like Cousins you are going to need to find elite players on cheap contracts and that is what we have with JJ and Darrisaw. Now the question is will Cousins ever be willing to take a more reasonable contract to retain better players - his previous MO says no. However, he may have a different appreciation with this management and coaching group.
However, honestly once we pay JJ even though he is a younger player and will still likely be giving good stats, he will ultimately not be as valuable due to the high pay. We will be paying him what we should be receiving. Christian Darrisaw and JJ are going to cause some cap management issues if we still have Cousins at such a high level. Add in Hockenson as well.
We will have some players coming off or back at reduced levels. Harry, Hunter?, Kendricks, Theilen, possibly Cook. It will be fun managing the cap in future years.