Minnesota Vikings rejected a Stefon Diggs trade that would have rocked the NFL
By Josh Hill
The Minnesota Vikings could have swapped Stefon Diggs for an All-Pro superstar, but passed on the deal.
Stefon Diggs and the Vikings might not be a pair anymore, but they’re still in the news together. Diggs sort of absolved the Vikings of the sin of trading him recently by noting he wanted out of Minnesota and did so based on where the offense was trending.
Diggs noted that the Vikings were leaning more into a run-heavy offense behind Dalvin Cook which didn’t really fit with how he saw himself being used. But the real stinger isn’t that Diggs and the Vikings split, it’s that the trade which sent him out of Minnesota could have been a total franchise changing move for the Vikings.
According to SI’s Albert Breer, the Houston Texans floated the idea of swapping DeAndre Hopkins this offseason but the Vikings passed.
"“Last year, when the Texans were looking to move DeAndre Hopkins, rumblings of a Hopkins-for-Stefon Diggs deal bubbled up briefly. The Vikings weren’t interested, for a variety of reasons (money was a big one.)”"
Vikings could have landed DeAndre Hopkins for Stefon Diggs
Swapping the guy who gave you the Minneapolis Miracle for DeAndre Hopkins? How perfect an ending to that story such a thing would have been.
Vikings fans should be incensed. For starters, Bill O’Brien was fired less than seven months after this trade was offered for being very bad at his job. If that guy offers you a trade, you take it and run.
Hopkins ended up getting traded for two draft picks (neither of which were firsts) and David Johnson. Minnesota could have probably talked the Texans into giving them more than Hopkins based on how bad O’Brien was at making trades, but alas the deal was never done.
Minnesota did pick up a first rounder from the Bills that turned into Justin Jefferson, so it’s not like this was a total miss. But imagine an offense that had Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, and DeAndre Hopkins on it — the NFL would have been knocked off its feet and the Vikings would have asserted themselves as true Super Bowl threats. Not only that, but the destiny of the Packers and the rest of the NFC North would have shifted on a dime.
Somewhere there’s an alternate universe where that reality is playing out, but in this one Vikings fans are left wondering what could have been.