The trade deadline is today. It’s not looking very promising right now but, s always, there is hope. Of course, I just want to see a trade.
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Monday, however, O’Connell talked extensively about Wolford — whom he coached when both were with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020-21 — and said he would like to add him to the 53-man roster at some point soon.
“I think with bringing John in,” O’Connell said, “it was something where we wanted to make sure we had a third guy in the room, a guy I know very well. He immediately picked up where I remember being with John — super smart, has a pretty high level of quickness and athleticism, quick twitch for a release and kind of a tight window thrower kind of guy that can activate a lot of different throw types. And he’s got experience understanding how our pass offense works and how we want to operate. So as he said, he’s the old man in the room now, and I think that’s important for two young guys.”
Meanwhile, O’Connell said the early news is positive on running back Aaron Jones, a big contributor to McCarthy’s success Sunday but who departed in the third quarter with a right shoulder injury. The Vikings have some hope that Jones can be available for Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens at U.S. Bank Stadium.
“We’ll see how he does throughout the week,” O’Connell said, “but expecting him to be able to kind of hopefully ramp up his workload [in practice].”
In other injury news, Vikings safety Theo Jackson was placed in the concussion protocol Monday after reporting what O’Connell called “very mild symptoms.” Tight end Josh Oliver (foot) has made some progress, but it’s not clear whether he will practice this week. Center Ryan Kelly, who has missed four games while on injured reserve after suffering two concussions earlier this season, will begin an attempt to return by working out with medical staff on a side field at practice this week. His 21-day window to resume practicing has not yet been opened.
The NFL trade deadline hits at 3 p.m. CT Tuesday, and the Minnesota Vikings could be a buyer after putting themselves firmly in the playoff race with a 27-24 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
What is their biggest need? Cornerback is the most obvious answer, though insiders have floated the idea that they could still be in the market for a veteran quarterback to back up J.J. McCarthy, or an edge rusher to provide depth behind Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Dallas Turner.
TRADE: Seahawks land WR Rashid Shaheed from Saints
Sam Darnold is having himself an all-star season in Seattle, and now he’s got more weapons at his disposal: The Seahawks are adding the speedster Shaheed from New Orleans, as NFL Media reported. The fourth-year veteran wideout is averaging almost 15 yards per catch for his career, showing up as a big-play threat even amid perennial quarterback woes for the Saints. Why didn’t New Orleans just retain Shaheed? He was due to hit free agency after the season, and new coach Kellen Moore could use all the draft picks he can get for a further restocking.
BLOCKBUSTER TRADE: Jets deal Sauce Gardner to Colts
How about this for a surprise shakeup?! New York is sending top cornerback Sauce Gardner — one of the most respected young cover men in the game — to Indianapolis in exchange for a pair of first-round draft picks and a player, which FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer reports is second-year receiver Adonai Mitchell.
Talk about a stunner. Indy paid big bucks to add Charvarius Ward to its secondary prior to the season, but with Ward still recovering from a concussion suffered in a freak pregame collision earlier this year, the AFC South frontrunner makes a splash.
The 25-year-old Gardner, a two-time All-Pro who also won Defensive Rookie of the Year in New York, just signed a four-year, $120 million contract extension with the Jets in July; at an annual average value of $30.1 million per year, he’s the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL.
But since that deal, Gardner apparently became more valuable to Gang Green as a trade chip than a long-term building block for new coach Aaron Glenn’s secondary. The No. 4 pick out of Cincinnati in the 2022 NFL Draft, Gardner led the NFL in pass breakups (20) as a rookie but has seen his ball production dip as of late, with just one interception in his last two and a half seasons. Still, he’s a major get for a Colts team clearly hoping to capitalize on its hot start in 2025.
TRADE: Jaguars acquire WR Jakobi Meyers from Raiders
We have our first big-name deal of the day: Jacksonville is adding Meyers from Las Vegas in exchange for fourth- and sixth-round picks, as ESPN reported. The Bills and Steelers also showed interest in securing the veteran wideout via trade, per The Athletic, but instead Meyers is headed to the Jaguars just days after Jacksonville placed Travis Hunter on injured reserve. Meyers figures to step in as a starter opposite Brian Thomas Jr.
The 28-year-old Meyers, who topped 1,000 receiving yards in his first season with the Raiders in 2024, had been seeking a trade out of Las Vegas since prior to this season. He spent the first four years of his NFL career with the New England Patriots, eclipsing 50 catches and 700 yards in each of his final three seasons there.
Thus, it’s not exactly a coincidence that on Sunday, in the Vikings’ first win over the Lions since Flores was hired, they found a way to keep Gibbs from hurting them. After torching the Buccaneers for 218 yards and two scores in his most recent outing, the Lions’ electrifying back was held to a career-low 28 yards on 12 touches in Minnesota’s upset victory.
The Vikings shut down Gibbs in a couple different ways. The first, simplest way they did it was by winning the line of scrimmage in the run game. This was pretty easily the most impressive performance of the season from the Vikings’ run defense, considering the opponent. Between Gibbs’ nine carries for 25 yards and David Montgomery’s 11 for 40, the Lions collectively averaged fewer than 3.3 yards per rush. They had just two runs longer than seven yards all day, both 11-yarders by Montgomery, and one of those ended in a key fumble forced by Blake Cashman.
The other way the Vikings limited Gibbs was by blitzing the Lions relentlessly in passing situations and forcing him to pick up a linebacker in pass protection. They blitzed Goff on 24 of his 42 dropbacks (57 percent), per PFF, which led to three of their five sacks. Gibbs had a long day in pass pro against the trio of Cashman, Wilson, and Ivan Pace Jr.; he was charged with seven pressures allowed on 15 such snaps. Wilson, in particular, had an incredible game as a blitzer, recording six pressures and two sacks.
As a receiver out of the backfield, Gibbs had just three catches for three total yards.
“Yeah, you would much prefer him blocking than being a major weapon in the pass game,” Kevin O’Connell said on Monday. “We did want to try to limit his ability in the pass game to impact the game, because he is as impactful as any running back in the National Football League when he gets the ball in his hands in space.
“I just thought Flo and the plan the staff had, and then the way the players made it come to life, was really good stuff.”
However, legendary NFL quarterback and Fox Sports commentator Tom Brady liked what he saw from McCarthy in Minnesota’s 27-24 win over the Lions. During the third quarter of the game, Brady went into detail about the positive things that stood out about how the 22-year-old did.
“He’s doing a lot that we can actually see on when the ball’s snapped,” Brady said of McCarthy. “He’s doing a lot before the snap. And I think that tells me that Kevin O’Connell is putting a lot of trust in him to get you in and out of the right plays.
“That last play on the scramble for the touchdown, that’s pretty easy for him. He’s been doing that since high school. The harder things are getting a play in the huddle, getting the operation right, getting us into the right play, handling the protection schemes, and then making accurate throws.
“And outside of the one throw where he threw it behind Nailor on the interception, there’s so many positives from what I’ve seen here today. Accurate throws, good decisions, good times to throw the ball away. Definitely giving this team the spark that it needed coming into a very tough place to play.”
When Brady says that someone is doing a lot of things the right way during a game, it means that the man he’s talking about did a lot of things the right way.
If you’ve looked at the NFL standings at any point over the past 24 hours, you may have noticed that the NFC North is arguably the best all-around division in football. Heading into Week 10, it’s the only division where all four teams are at .500 or above. Oh, and did I mention that the four teams in the NFC North are a combined 8-3 against AFC North? The only reason I’m pointing all of this out is because the Ravens are favored to win this week, but maybe they shouldn’t be.
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Normally, when Jackson faces an NFC team I automatically pick the Ravens — and that’s mainly because he has a career record of 24-3 against NFC teams — but I can not blindly pick the Ravens this week because Jackson isn’t as automatic as he used to be against NFC teams (He’s 0-2 over the past 12 months, including a loss to the Lions this year).
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The Ravens have given up the fifth-most passing yards per game in the NFL this year and that could be a problem for a team that’s about to face a Vikings offense that has one of the top receivers in the NFL in Justin Jefferson. I definitely don’t trust J.J. McCarthy just yet and if the Ravens could get any pressure on the quarterback, I’d probably lean toward Baltimore, but they haven’t been able to do that this year. Even the Ravens know they’ve struggled to get pressure on the QB, which is why they added Dre’Mont Jones in a trade on Monday night. Jones might eventually help Baltimore’s defense, but I don’t think he’ll help much this week.
The Ravens have NEVER won in Minnesota and I’m going to say that streak somehow continues on Sunday.
PICK: Vikings 27-24 over Ravens | Vikings +4 | Odds via Caesars Sportsbook
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