With the start of the new league year rapidly approaching, the talking heads around the internet are putting out their think pieces about what teams should do in order to start preparing for it. Once such piece from the folks up in Bristol, Connecticut is proposing potential trades, and it has one for our Minnesota Vikings that is. . .well, not something I would be in favor of.
Bill Barnwell of ESPN has put together a piece about 11 NFL trades that would make sense for both teams, and he’s proposed a trade between the Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers that would allow the Vikings to “find some QB room insurance.” The trade sees the Vikings sending a 2026 second-round pick, a conditional 2027 fifth-rounder, and a conditional 2028 third-rounder to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for quarterback Mac Jones and a 2027 third-round pick.
That’s some damn expensive insurance.
Here’s some of the logic and reasoning that Barnwell has put behind his trade proposal:
This would be sort of a complicated trade, but the Vikings would be adding a quarterback who showed some of his upside in San Francisco. Jones posted a 62.3 Total QBR during his lone season with the 49ers, coming in a little more than 10 points behind Brock Purdy’s 73.0 mark. Jones is due just $4.7 million in 2026, which will be the final year of his contract. And of course, we know that the Vikings have been willing to take a swing on quarterbacks who have gone through the Kyle Shanahan rejuvenation cycle before, having signed Sam Darnold after the now-Super Bowl champion’s only year in San Francisco.
I note we’ve glossed over Kevin O’Connell’s role in the Sam Darnold reclamation project. Okay.
While this sounds feasible on the surface, Mac Jones is nowhere near the physical talent that Sam Darnold is, and he never has been. Darnold always had the physical tools and just needed things to fall into place. Jones, who was way overdrafted when he was selected at #15 overall in 2021, isn’t on that level.
Basically, if you’re giving up the sort of compensation that Barnwell is proposing here, you’d better come out with something a heck of a lot better than Mac Jones. Honestly, this does nothing to move the proverbial needle for me. Even if you believe that Jones is a significant improvement over J.J. McCarthy, he’s likely just good enough to get the Vikings to the fringes of the playoff hunt, which is not where this team wants to go. Frankly, I’m not convinced that a healthy McCarthy. . .which, yes, I realize is a contradiction at this point in his short career. . .doesn’t provide more upside than Jones would.
There is one other quarterback trade in Barnwell’s piece, and it involves a player that I talked about briefly the other day in Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray. Barnwell has the New York Jets sending a 2026 fourth-round pick to Arizona for Murray and a 2026 sixth-round pick. Honestly, that’s a whole lot more intriguing than the Mac Jones deal. Yes, Murray’s contract is significantly more expensive, but he’s certainly a whole lot better and could do much more for the Vikings than Jones could, in my opinion.
What do you think of the Vikings pulling off a potential trade for Mac Jones, folks? Are you intrigued by the idea or do you dislike it as much as I do?
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