The offensive NFL trades we’d make (because we’re overreacting to one week of preseason football)
We're one meaningless week into football season. LET'S PANIC
It can be tempting to read too much into the first week of the preseason. We’ve waited six months to watch the NFL again, and that anticipation gives every highlight and every mistake a feeling of weighted importance.
Don’t fall into that trap! Remember that preseason football is mostly a battle of backups competing for roster spots, and sometimes the biggest stars of August are mostly forgotten by October.
BUT what happened on the field does matter, even if it mostly involves backups competing for roster spots. You can see potential strengths and weaknesses, both hoping and not that they’re harbingers of what’s to come.
Luckily, there’s still time for teams to try to fix one of their areas of concern via a trade. In the previous five preseasons, the NFL has averaged more than 13 trades each August (and usually several more in early September). Sometimes they’re well-known players and other times you have to Google their names to make sure they really exist. This preseason shouldn’t be any different.
As such, we put together trade suggestions that could and/or should happen soon. These moves would either make these teams immediately better or give them a little insurance in case disaster strikes. Today we’ll focus on the offensive side of the ball.
The Vikings welcome Gardner Minshew to the opposite of Florida
Kirk Cousins refuses to get vaccinated and seems like a lock to miss time this season. That’s awful news for a Minnesota team that sits on the postseason borderline and will have little room to absorb stupid losses in 2021. Kellen Mond may be (but probably isn’t) the Vikings quarterback of the future. However, his first preseason start showed he’s certainly not their QB of the present — he completed just six of 16 passes for only 53 yards against the Broncos.
Adding a high-value backup should be high on coach Mike Zimmer’s wish list, along with getting his team to listen to doctors because holy shit look at this:
Minnesota could welcome Case Keenum back to the city where he had his greatest season as a pro, but he’s in the middle of a three-year, $18 million contract the Vikes likely can’t afford (and his vaccine status seems iffy as well). Instead, the team could go with a younger, cheaper option with a lower floor but higher ceiling by kicking the tires on Minshew.
The former sixth-round pick has outplayed expectations his first two seasons in the league, even if that’s led to a 7-13 record as a starter. His path to the first team in Jacksonville is now blocked by No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence, who bounced back from a rocky start in his preseason debut to earn positive reviews from head coach Urban Meyer:
"I asked [passing game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer] how he played, and he said he did pretty good," Meyer told reporters after Lawrence completed six of nine passes for 71 yards. "I thought the ball to his left right in front of us, I think it was on third down, he really anticipated a nice out cut, scrambled and delivered a nice one to Marvin Jones.”
The Jags also signed former 49er CJ Beathard to a two-year, $5 million deal this offseason, so Minshew, despite his viability, doesn’t seem long for the Sunshine State. The mustachioed gunslinger is under contract through 2022 with just $1.9 million in cap hits total attached to his deal. Cousins is also under contract through ‘22 — at a much more untenable $76 million in cap hits — so it’s not as though this would create a viable succession plan. Still, Minnesota could kick the tires on Minshew, who is roughly eight years younger than Cousins, while rostering a more stable QB2 than the rookie Mond and then have the inside track on re-signing him should things work out.
What would it take to pry Minshew from the Jags? Meyer and general manager Trent Baalke have spent most of 2021 looking overwhelmed while making underwhelming moves. Minshew, since he plays a premium position and costs next to nothing, would likely fetch more than inside linebacker Joe Schobert did when the Steelers came calling, but is still likely inexpensive thanks to the remaining depth around Minshew in the quarterbacks room. It doesn’t make sense for Jacksonville to cut ties with a useful, cheap backup — but it didn’t make sense for the Jags to sign Beathard or draft Travis Etienne in the first round either. Anything’s on the table. That could mean finding a high-value replacement for the inevitable week when Cousins gets taken out due to contact tracing after a particularly rowdy night at Pizza Ranch. — CD
Nick Foles heads back home to Texas
Until last season, the Cowboys hadn’t needed to worry much about their backup quarterback situation since Dak Prescott took over for an injured Tony Romo and never gave the job back. Prescott started the first 69 (nice) games of his NFL career, spanning 2016-19 and the first five weeks of 2020. Then he fractured his ankle and sat out the rest of the season.
The Cowboys missed Prescott on their way to a 6-10 finish, but his injury wasn’t the only reason for their woes (they were just 1-3 heading into that fateful Week 5 game and Prescott was off to his best statistical start yet). Andy Dalton, who also missed a couple of games due to injury and then Covid, played mostly fine filling in for Prescott. With a competent defense and healthier offensive line, he could’ve even delivered the Cowboys an NFC East title.
As we know, that didn’t happen. But with Prescott set to return to the Cowboys on a long-awaited extension, Dalton — who proved he could still be a capable starter or quality backup — joined the Bears in the offseason. The Bears, who already had Nick Foles under contract, said they signed Dalton to be the starter, an edict they maintained even after trading up for Justin Fields. Whether Dalton actually starts over Fields in Week 1 is up for debate, but either way, Foles is buried at No. 3 on the depth chart.
And reading between the lines, Foles doesn’t want to be in Chicago anymore. The fans don’t want him there either, though they’re much less subtle about it:
Foles thinks he’s playing better football now than he was when he won Super Bowl MVP honors and that he can be an asset to the right team. He’s been on the trading block all offseason and time is running out for the Bears to recoup a little value. Unless Carson Wentz suffers a major setback or another starting quarterback is injured, anyone who trades for Foles is looking at him as a backup quarterback who can jump right in if QB1 goes down.
Enter Dallas, a three-hour trip up I-35N from Foles’ hometown of Austin. Although Prescott is on track to play in Week 1 after dealing with a shoulder strain this preseason, the Cowboys have to prepare for the worst. Right now, they’re in position to retake the NFC East, due in part to Prescott’s return but also an overall improved team from a year ago. If Prescott’s shoulder isn’t right, or he gets hurt again, all of those hopes would disappear. We’ve now seen two Cowboys preseason with Garrett Gilbert, Ben DiNucci, and Cooper Rush under center, and to borrow a popular social media colloquialism, they ain’t it. (Their passer ratings in the preseason so far: 74.5, 52.5, 75.6, respectively.)
Foles has been there before. Not just in Texas, not just in the NFC East, but as a No. 2 thrust into the starting job. He could keep the Cowboys afloat if needed, and that kind of assurance would be worth whatever late-round pick they’d have to give up. — SH
N’Keal Harry goes from Bill Belichick to Sean Payton
I’m not ready to give up on New England Patriot N’Keal Harry, but the fact I got overly excited about a training camp play like this suggests I’ve already put such a dampener on his expectation level that I’m beyond hope.
Harry was a needed body each of the past two years thanks to his potential and New England’s lack of depth, but the Patriots’ recent signings of Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, Nelson Agholor, and Kendrick Bourne along with Jakobi Meyers’ development, has made him expendable. Harry’s agent requested a trade this summer, but that was before he looked like a viable NFL wideout this August.
He might be in Bill Belichick’s future, or the savvy head coach/GM might use this slight bounce to ship off his scuttled first-round pick. Harry could have a number of suitors (or none, since he’s had 45 catches in two seasons), but no team in the league may need a turnaround wideout more than the Saints. Michael Thomas will miss the start of the season recovering from surgery on a bum ankle that kept him without a touchdown through the entire 2020 regular season. Emmanuel Sanders left in free agency and tight end Jared Cook was released. New Orleans’ starting receivers in Week 1 could be some combination of Tre’Quan Smith, Deonte Harris, and Marquez Callaway alongside TE1 Adam Trautman.
That’s a rough scene, especially for a team with major questions to answer at quarterback. Adding Harry, who if nothing else has emerged as a useful possession receiver, could be a boon to that group. The Saints need someone to step up at the position, and their lack of established talent could be just the opportunity for Harry to prove he’s not a bust. It’s not a perfect solution for New Orleans, but it’s a buy-low transaction that could have a major payoff. — CD
Tyrell Crosby takes his talents to … sorry, I can’t finish that lame joke. He gets traded to the Dolphins
Tua Tagovailoa didn’t have a great rookie season. It wasn’t bad, either, but the growing pains were evident. That’s not all Tua’s fault. He was coming off a major injury and didn’t get a proper offseason due to both his knee and Covid restrictions.
Still, there were a few whispers this winter that the Dolphins would consider pulling their own Cardinals/Josh Rosen move — i.e., drafting a top-10 quarterback one year after drafting a top-10 quarterback. That speculation mostly died when the Dolphins traded the No. 3 pick to the 49ers, but it was clear that Tua would have to take a big step forward in his second year.
So far, Tua’s on the right track. As the Dolphins’ preseason opener showed, he looks more comfortable in the offense this year, even if a late interception marred his day. His deep throws were a highlight:
And one more positive development was that Tua wasn’t sacked once, a nice change of pace from his rookie season. Last year, Tua was sacked 20 times — or the same amount as Aaron Rodgers, despite Tua starting seven fewer games than the league MVP. PFF ranked Miami’s offensive line at No. 28 in 2020 … one spot higher than it ranks the unit heading into the 2021 season.
That, along with a few poor pass-blocking grades from the OL on Saturday, helps explain why the Dolphins are looking to trade for an offensive tackle.
This time of year, pretty much every team would love more OL depth, but for once, the Lions aren’t one of them. They used the No. 7 pick on Penei Sewell, who played with the first team at right tackle in the Lions’ preseason game. Sewell rebounded from an early mistake and barring injury, will be the starter in Week 1. That leaves last year’s right tackle, Tyrell Crosby, as a backup — but a versatile one who can play guard or tackle.
The Lions could keep Crosby as insurance in case injuries force the OL to shuffle. Or they could try to land a mid-round pick for a valuable swing tackle in the midst of a rebuilding year (they’re open to hearing offers). Dan Campbell could do his old team a favor and send Crosby to Miami, thus giving Tua more protection as he tries to progress into the franchise quarterback the Dolphins drafted him to be. — SH