The Minnesota Vikings had a very active trade deadline by acquiring quarterback Josh Dobbs from the Arizona Cardinals and trading left guard Ezra Cleveland to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
What they didn’t do was trade Danielle Hunter or acquire a big name at the trade deadline.
As things currently sit, the Vikings are 4-4 with a beeline for a wild card spot and a plausible chance to win the NFC North. That will come down to either fifth-round pick Jaren Hall or Dobbs leading the way.
After the trade deadline, head coach Kevin O’Connell spoke to the media about the direction of the team and where things stand with multiple players.
Updates and introduction
“Appreciate you guys letting me shoot down here for sec. Wanted to update you on a couple of things. We did put Kirk Cousins on injured reserve, and he’ll be having his procedure later this week and keep you guys updated there. We did acquire Josh Dobbs via trade from the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for a sixth-round pick. We also picked up a seventh-round pick in the trade. Thought it was important in our process of evaluating our options at the position to make sure we solidified our quarterback room along with Jaren Hall and hopefully Nick Mullens coming back off short-term IR at some point. Do not know that timeline as of right now of when that would happen, but Josh gives us an experienced player who has started some games, not only this year, but last, and has played some good football against some of the best defenses in our league and found ways to move the ball, brings a level of athleticism to go along with great, great football intelligence and smart player, have always loved his makeup and what he’s all about, and he’s played in a variety of different offenses and I know he’s excited to get going here, so we’ll get him out here and start the preparation of acclimating him and getting him ready to go, potentially on Sunday in a supportive role of Jaren. We do plan to start Jaren Hall on Sunday, but as we work through the week, we’ll keep you guys posted on that. Excited to see what Jaren can do.
Then, we also did trade Ezra Cleveland to the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for a sixth-round pick in 2024. Ezra’s really one of the first players that I got to know very well when I first came to Minnesota. He was in my office seemed like daily and just building a relationship with him, so it is bittersweet, but I know it’s a great situation that Ezra’s going to down in Jacksonville, his former position coach down there on a really good team, and Ezra will help out those guys tremendously, really a scenario that came
about via our acquisition of Dalton Risner and seeing Dalton perform these last two weeks out there with that group and then knowing the depth we do have with Blake [Brandel], who I’ve been high on, as you guys know, all season long. He just really hasn’t gotten an opportunity yet. Ed [Ingram] doing some good things at the right guard spot and then knowing the timeline possibly on Chris Reed’s window being opened up to possibly return as well. He’s been doing some really good things, preparing himself for when that happens, but anytime a player is in the last year of his contract and we can acquire a future resource that we can use this year to help our team, it’s tough decisions with the makeup and the group we have, and I’m incredibly aware of our team and the locker room, but I do think this is going to be a positive move for not only Ezra, but with the depth we do have, it gave us a chance to feel good about a move like this.”
What have the past 24 hours been like, evaluating your options, and can you tell us now who blew up your cell phone?
“I cannot. I can tell you we’ve looked at and evaluated a lot of different things and really, with some hopeful kind of guidelines of what we want to do in the short term, giving us and giving our team the best possible chance to continue the success that we’ve been on. I think our team is still improving, and solidifying the quarterback room and the depth there to give us multiple guys we feel like we can go out and win with was important, and we feel like Josh does that.”
Is Josh in the mix to be a starter once he’s acclimated?
“Yeah, I think the way I really see it is, hopefully Jaren [Hall] goes out and plays great on Sunday and there’s a lot to build off of there. We’re still going to prepare Josh Dobbs like he’s not only one snap away, but just as we move forward, what gives us the best possible chance to win? And I think it’s
important that we’re always evaluating, you know, for Jaren and his development and where we think he may go in this league, what that looks like in the current situation. Now, that has obviously changed in the immediate timeline for this week, but it’s my responsibility to always be gauging what’s best for him moving forward. And now that we have Josh and potentially Nick coming back, as well. We feel comfortable with the depth in that room now, and we can continue to press onward.”
You talked yesterday about the potential that someone could come in long-term; was that a possibility over the past 24 hours, that someone who could conceivably be a longer-term option, or do you see Josh in that regard?
“I think the biggest thing was just evaluating each possible situation as its own and not only looking at the short term, our ability to try to overcome what was a catastrophic loss, losing Kirk [while he was] playing as well as anybody in this league, while also knowing that the future and the importance of that position for our organization moving forward, you have to evaluate a lot of those things in a really short amount of time. But we talked about different things and had some dialogue, great dialogue internally, and then we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves the opportunity to really go a lot of directions with the position, including – like I’ve said many times, Kirk Cousins is going to be healthy again, I know he’s going to be a free agent after this season, but Kirk knows how I feel about him, and that’ll be something that will hopefully work itself out. But I think this immediate solution that we found provides us with a really quality player at a time where we were able to go out and get that player without potentially leaving the world of the future and the now – we were kind of able to accomplish the goal of both and help our football team.”
Do you want Kirk Cousins to come back next year?
“Yeah, you guys know how I feel about Kirk. Kirk knows how I feel about Kirk. I think he was playing as well as anybody in the National Football League. And one of the biggest parts about kind of coping with this, and we must do that, as we talked about yesterday – it feels like it was a lot longer ago than that – we must do that, but coping with the fact that I believe he was experiencing his best season in the National Football League and where we could have gone as a team – hopefully we’re going to still get to that place. But I know without Kirk Cousins and that high level of quarterback play we were getting from him week-in and week-out, it’s going to be a challenge. But like I said, one that we’ve got to accept and try to thrive.”
Since you put [Nick] Mullens on Injured Reserve, did that change what Jaren was doing? You mentioned he was running the scout team, but as a second-string guy, was he getting some first-team reps at all?
“Yeah, I think that’s a great point. Absolutely, the scout-team reps and how we handle that here, we try to make it as realistic as possible. We can run variations of our plays that still simulate things for the defense. We’re able to do that, and those count as real reps. And Flo (Defensive Coordinator Brian
Flores) and his guys love for the quarterback to compete and try to work through progressions and create off schedule – and a lot of things that, when you’re looking at it from a standpoint of development, really, are a real positive for Jaren over these last few weeks. And then just all the extra
work he’s been doing with Grant [Udinski] and Chris [O’Hara], you know, I see him in the indoor at the end of the week, going through the whole plan. Because he has been, really, since Nick went down, a snap away. So, the preparation started long before this week on preparing him to play for us, and I think this is where we’ll see the benefit of that and the hard work that’s been done that no one’s really seen. And hopefully that’ll give Jaren the confidence to attack this week the right way and go play well on Sunday.”
Sounds like it’s not a one-week deal [for Mullens]?
“Yeah, I don’t want to speculate on that because I think Nick is as competitive as anyone I’ve ever been around and wants to be out there for his team. But we have one more week, by the letter of the law rules-wise, before we can possibly bring him back, but we’re going to want to do right by Nick, as well, and make sure he’s healthy and ready to go when he’s able to come back and start practicing again full time. I think you’d love to just say, ‘Hey, his window can be open – let’s go.’ But we have a little bit more of a responsibility to Nick and, really, all of our players than that. But we’re going to hopefully have Nick back, and I can’t tell you when that’s going to be, but like I said, the depth of the quarterback room was most important throughout this time.”
For you as a guy who’s spent as much time as you have in quarterback development, just the way you handle Jaren and his trajectory…
“Yeah, I think it’s important. I can reference a lot of personal experiences as a player – a thousand things I would have done different – but I think it’s important for him to understand there’s really no reason to have a 30,000-foot view of ‘what does this mean?’ ‘What does this mean for my long-term
career, my development, all those things?’ This is about playing one snap at a time and doing your job and making sure you effectively run our offense. And it’s on us as coaches to put together a plan that gives him an opportunity to do that, and then if we go about things the right way, there will be tremendous opportunity for growth on a play-to-play, drive-to-drive and hopefully game-to-game basis that will allow us to watch Jaren grow before our very eyes. And I think he’s physically capable, I think he’s mentally capable, and I think he’s made up of the right stuff. I love the way he’s attacked whatever role he’s been in throughout the season. And like I said, this is the time when you do all those things that you do, when nobody’s really counting on you or thinking that you’re potentially going to be on the
field, all those lonely hours or lonely moments where he’s with the coaches, grinding on some extra work here and there – this is where you see the benefit of that. I’m excited to see the way Jaren goes about the week and performs on Sunday.”
