Josh Jacobs rumors: 5 trade destinations to free RB from Raiders

Josh Jacobs trade destination No. 1: Minnesota Vikings

Vikings cap space remaining:$18,034,012

Admittedly, the optics of releasing Dalvin Cook, who has been incredibly productive throughout his career with the Minnesota Vikings, only to then trade for the $10.1 million salary of Josh Jacobs on the franchise tag would not be great.

Functionally it makes a great deal of sense, however.

Kirk Cousins is entering the final year of his contract with the Vikings and, as such, it appears that Minnesota is going to be trying to go for it this season. They’ve seemingly worked hard to improve the defense, most notably replacing defensive coordinator Ed Donatell with Brian Flores while shuffling out aging personnel, but the offense remains incredibly dangerous.

With that said, it’s hard not to be a bit concerned about Alexander Mattison stepping in as the RB1 following Cook’s release. While Mattison has been a fine stopgap and a longtime valuable handcuff in fantasy football, the underlying numbers also say that he doesn’t profile as an efficient every-down back.

Jacobs obviously does and, more importantly, he’d be in a similar situation to what he thrived in with the Raiders last season. The attention paid to Davante Adams in the Vegas offense last season aided Jacobs in having plenty of room to work out of the backfield, something that the Vikings could obviously replicate with Justin Jefferson — only with a superior offensive line to help further.

Given that the Vikings could be looking to go all-in at the 11th hour in order to make potentially one last push with Cousins at quarterback before Jefferson gets paid handsomely, then spending big on Jacobs on the trade market could be the final piece of that puzzle.