Balancing "best WR trio" against Greenard trade
The Vikings have the best WR trio in the NFL...by a lot
This addition gives the Vikings the best 1-2-3 punch at wide receiver in the league, and it might not be particularly close. They already had arguably the best receiver in all of football in Justin Jefferson and a top-5 WR2 in Jordan Addison, and now they get another WR2 who slots in as probably the best WR3 in the NFL.
Think about it this way: Over the last two seasons, only 23 NFL wide receivers have at least 1,400 yards and 12 touchdown catches. The Vikings now have three of them. The only other teams who even have two are the Bengals, Eagles, Lions, and Chargers.
Several teams have an elite WR duo, but their No. 3s are guys like Isaac TeSlaa (Lions), Andrei Iosivas (Bengals), or Ryan Flournoy (Cowboys). The trio that might have the best chance to rival the Vikings is in Philadelphia, with No. 20 pick Makai Lemon joining A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. But Lemon hasn't played an NFL game, and the Eagles are reportedly planning to trade Brown to the Patriots.
The Greenard trade is more justifiable now
After the Vikings traded Pro Bowl pass rusher Jonathan Greenard to the Eagles during last month's draft, we wrote that it was a move they may come to regret. That may still wind up being true, but the trade actually feels a lot more justifiable now. After all, the Vikings only have the salary cap space to sign Jennings because Greenard's contract is no longer on their books.
It doesn't exactly work this way, but if you think of the trade as the Vikings sending out Greenard and a seventh-round pick for Jennings and two third-rounders, it makes quite a bit more sense. A No. 1 edge rusher is more valuable than a No. 3 receiver, but the Vikings also added some draft capital and made a move that fits their roster construction. Trading Greenard frees up a full-time role for Dallas Turner, and signing Jennings addresses a clear need.
Plus, the 2025 Vikings were 28th in EPA per play on offense and 3rd on defense, so balancing the roster by swapping a defensive star for a very good offensive player makes sense on paper.
Will Ragatz, SI
Please God, just one Lombardi before I die.
Well.....our old WR3 just signed a contract for more than what Jennings is making, so......it was pretty good last year. The part I like is that Jennings brings something different to the room now, taller and bigger bodied. And we got two 3rds for Greenard, so its not chicken scratch. Things worked out well for both teams most likely, but in a perfect world Minnesota would have kept Greenard....Dallas Turner makes it palatable.
He can definitely block. There’s a clip of him blocking a lions db into the locker room. I can definitely get behind that. A big bodied wr will come in handy near the end zone also. We are going to be tough to cover!
Guess I see the dots connecting, but I had to think about it for a minute...
I understand trading Greenard, but that doesnt mean I have to like it.
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
Trading grenard was the best choice the Vikings had in a scenario kwesi created...
The Vikings are gonna change from a finesse team to one that pushes people around..
Mattyman wrote:
Trading grenard was the best choice the Vikings had in a scenario kwesi created...
The Vikings are gonna change from a finesse team to one that pushes people around..
I don't think Minnesota wanted to trade Greenard at all......but they had to with the cap being where its at and to do some additional moves now and probably in the near future for current players. And the NFL knew it.... so to get two 3rd rounders was pretty decent considering. There was zero joy in Eagan over that deal.
Montana Tom wrote:
Plus, the 2025 Vikings were 28th in EPA per play on offense and 3rd on defense, so balancing the roster by swapping a defensive star for a very good offensive player makes sense on paper.
Anyone know why the Vikings were 28th on offense last year? Anyone? Bueller? When people use this stat to comment on KOC or an unbalanced roster it drives me crazy.
"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it”
MaroonBells wrote:
Anyone know why the Vikings were 28th on offense last year? Anyone? Bueller? When people use this stat to comment on KOC or an unbalanced roster it drives me crazy.
Yeah, it was bad QB play and having to use multiple QBs because of injuries....and don't forget the offensive line injuries which hurt both the passing and running games. 18 different alignments for a starting offensive line last season?
But its a stat. And that stat doesn't fairly evaluate the QB play, either. Or the lack of a running game, which also had injuries. And within that 28th on offense stat, the team won 9 games. Not 4. Not 5. Nine. So how can we seriously evaluate much of anything, other than obvious mistakes, with the amount of injuries the team had? You can torture the stat to fit narratives. Also, how many drops did WRers have last year? Too many.
If the team wins more than 9 games, its probably overwhelmingly going to be because the team is overall healthier than last season. Some may think this or that, but that will be the reason. Start there.
There is a big part of me that says Darnold should still be a Viking...
I luv hindsight.
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
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