If the Minnesota Vikings move on from wide receiver Stefon Diggs this offseason, here are five trade possibilities and landing spots involving the wideout.
This offseason leading up to the start of the 2020 NFL season will likely be one filled with personnel changes for the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings have already announced multiple additions and moves within their coaching staff with the offseason now in full swing. Moves on the player side of things likely to follow at some point before the new year begins.
While Minnesota deals with a difficult salary cap situation, there are multiple players that the organization might consider parting ways with and not committing long-term to in advance of the 2020 campaign. One player that could include is Vikings young and game-changing wide receiver Stefon Diggs.
During the 2019 campaign, which was Diggs’ fifth season in the NFL and with Minnesota, the wideout was one of the top wide receivers on the team and throughout the league.
While oftentimes providing quarterback Kirk Cousins a nice deep-ball threat on offense who could break open a game at any given moment, Diggs led the team with a career-high 1,130 receiving yards and a career-best 17.9 yards per reception on the outside of the field for Minnesota. He finished with six touchdown receptions and managed to record 61 total rushing yards in 15 appearances for the purple and gold.
Those statistics and aspects of the young wide receivers game makes you wonder why he would be on this list of players that the Vikings could look to cut ties with ahead of the 2020 season, but one concerning aspect that has come along with the positives of Diggs’ game is the negative of the drama that comes along with the 26-year-old wideout.
Throughout the regular season, both early on in the year and even in the postseason, Diggs brought some negative and unwanted attention to the team while bringing up some drama-related issues primarily surrounding his role within the offense and the overall performance of the offense.
Oftentimes, Diggs would be very open with frustrations he held when talking to the media before or after games, while also displaying his frustration openly on the sidelines on a few separate occasions during the year.
That negative alone could open up the idea for Minnesota to possibly try and find a trade partner to cut ties with both the wide receivers expensive contract along with any baggage he carries with himself behind the scenes in the locker room.
In 2018, Diggs signed a five-year, $81 million contract extension with the Vikings. The 2019 campaign marked the second year of that deal, which will expire following the 2023 year, with the wide receiver earning around $14.4 million per season on average during that five year span.
There’s no question that Diggs is and will continue to be one of the top wide receivers in the NFL, but with Minnesota needing to address some salary cap issues both this upcoming season and in the coming years, the drama that he can tend to carry with him might persuade the Vikings to try and find a trade partner to move the wide receiver this offseason.
Before any of that can take place, let’s dive into five possible destinations and trade partners that could emerge to bring in Diggs in 2020 and beyond.