Sometimes the best trades are the ones that don’t happen

A look back a couple of years

Everyone loves the NFL Draft because of the prospect of the unknown, as well as the potential promise of a brighter future for their favorite football team. While everyone wants to see their team make the big move and potentially set themselves up for long-term success, sometimes the best thing is for such a move not to happen.

In light of the Chicago Bears trading Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday, it’s important to remember that Rick Spielman was attempting to get the Minnesota Vikings in a position to take Fields in that 2021 NFL Draft.

At No. 10, the Dallas Cowboys swapped with their division rival Philadelphia Eagles, who took wide receiver DeVonta Smith. The Vikings were three picks away from closing in on Fields when the Chicago Bears dealt their No. 20 pick, their No. 164 pick and their 2022 first- and fourth-round picks to the New York Giants to move up nine spots to draft Fields, a potential franchise-saving quarterback.

The Vikings were stunned, and this one really stung. They wanted one of the top quarterbacks, but they weren’t desperate enough to give up that kind of draft capital for a player who would be sitting behind Cousins for at least a year.

But Fields was the guy for Minnesota, and the team was prepared to take him if he had been there at No. 14 and begin a process of shifting course.

The 2021 NFL Draft was also the last one that Rick Spielman was in charge of for the Vikings. Just saying.

As it turns out, Fields. . .at least to this point. . .has not been terribly good at the whole “being an NFL quarterback” thing, which is why the Bears wound up shipping him out of town for a sixth-round pick in next year’s draft. Sure, the Vikings wound up losing Cousins in the long run, but at least they’ll get a compensatory third-round pick for him unless something really drastic happens between now and the end of the Compensatory pick signing period.

Would Fields have developed differently had the Vikings taken him and allowed him to sit for a couple of years? I suppose it’s a possibility, but a lot of the stuff that Fields is bad at are the sorts of things that should come with more reps, particularly the fact that he takes way, way too many sacks.

It’s also important to point out that a trade for Fields would have, ultimately, meant no Christian Darrisaw for the Vikings, as they wound up moving back from #14 after Fields was gone and took Darrisaw at #23 instead. Darrisaw has been very good so far in his time with the Vikings and he, along with Brian O’Neill, are the cornerstones of an offensive line that looks like it might finally be turning the corner.

A lot of folks were disappointed when the news came out that the Vikings attempted to move up and get Justin Fields in the 2021 NFL Draft but were, ultimately, unsuccessful. In this case, however, the best move that the Vikings could have made was the one they did make, which was not to make a move at all.

Just a subtle reminder as we get closer to the 2024 NFL Draft that nothing is set in stone and sometimes getting what you wish for isn’t always the optimal outcome.