VikingsTerritory’s Purple Rumor Mill is a two-day chronicle each week. All the week’s rumors are lassoed and plopped in two spots — articles on Saturday and Sunday — for review. Today is the August 25th edition.
Purple Rumor Mill: Russell Wilson Trade for Vikings, Robert Tonyan, Hot Seat
Remember — rumors are rumors. What you read on weekends in these pieces is what the world is talking about pertaining to the Vikings, not necessarily items that will come to fruition.
Here’s the second batch of the week. Yesterday’s can be read here.
Rumor: The Vikings should call the Pittsburgh Steelers and finagle a trade for Russell Wilson because he’s better than Sam Darnold.
Former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum has wild quarterback theory for the purple team — a deal to acquire Russell Wilson from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“A win-win here is to trade Russell Wilson to Minnesota. I think he’s a better quarterback than Sam Darnold. They certainly can battle it out,” Tannenbaum said on ESPN’s Get Up on Wednesday.
Minnesota will showcase Darnold at QB1 this season after J.J. McCarthy tore his meniscus during the first preseason game. The Vikings’ coaching staff has spent all summer preparing Darnold for the assignment, so trading for Wilson would certainly be bold and untimely for his theoretical understanding of the offense. Head coach Kevin O’Connell doesn’t necessarily utilize a simple scheme.
Tannenbaum added, “Unfortunately for Minnesota history is repeating itself. We go back to 2016, Teddy Bridgewater had a catastrophic injury at practice. Sam Bradford gets traded from the Eagles to the Vikings.”
This one won’t go anywhere unless Darnold gets hurt. Why? If the Vikings wanted Wilson, they would’ve signed him instead of Darnold in March. It’s as simple as that.
Rumor: Once thought of as a roster lock, Robert Tonyan may not make the Vikings’ 53-man roster.
After a successful minicamp in June, Tonyan appeared to be trending to TE1 or TE2 duties for the Vikings, with T.J. Hockenson expected to miss the start of the regular season.
But that theory might’ve been premature. Minnesota released its first unofficial depth chart earlier this month — and Tonyan was buried around TE5.
Fast-forward to the final week of the preseason, and some Vikings-themed voices don’t believe Tonyan will make the cut at all next week. For example, KSTP’s Darren Wolfson said on SKOR North Tuesday, “Tonyan, he got a good chance here, but this, to me, signifies that his body might just be done.”
For context, this is the team’s current TE pecking order:
- TE1: T.J. Hockenson (PUP)
- TE2: Josh Oliver
- TE3: Johnny Mundt
- TE4: Nick Muse
- TE5: Robert Tonyan
- TE6: N’Keal Harry
- TE7: Trey Knox
- TE8: Sammis Reyes
Wolfson added, “It’s a phenomenally tough sport, he’s a big guy, he’s obviously taken a pounding, I wonder if this is the end of the road here. I don’t see a path here.”
The verdict is still out, but Wolfson may have nailed this on the head.
Rumor: General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is on the hot seat.
ESPN formally added the “hot seat” terminology to Adofo-Mensah’s job security on Monday, a nugget tucked into an article about 2024 power rankings.
Adofo-Mensah recently drafted would-be franchise quarterback J.J. McCarthy in April, but according to ESPN, the selection did little to keep the young executive’s job safe.
“Who’s on the hot seat: GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. For understandable reasons, Adofo-Mensah embarked on a quarterback transition as he entered the third season of a four-year contract. But rookie J.J. McCarthy will miss the 2024 season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, making Sam Darnold the likely starter,” ESPN’s Kevin Seifert wrote this week while Minnesota checked in as the league’s 23rd-best team entering 2024.
Adofo-Mensah also discovered EDGE rusher Dallas Turner in Round 1 of the draft, and adding him + McCarthy was nearly universally praised by Vikings fans.
Seifert added about Adofo-Mensah on the hot seat: “And after he used seven draft picks in April to maneuver for edge rusher Dallas Turner, Adofo-Mensah has only three picks in the 2025 draft to further improve the team. A bad season wouldn’t necessarily cost Adofo-Mensah his job, but it could inform owners Zygi and Mark Wilf’s decision on whether to extend his contract or let him enter its final season in 2025.”
It might be a little strange for Minnesota’s ownership to extend Adofo-Mensah now. Conventional logic suggests it will want to see how the 2024 draft class pans out or at least get a drop on McCarthy’s staying power in the sport. It also doesn’t help that McCarthy will encounter a redshirt year after tearing his meniscus two weeks ago.
The hot seat for Adofo-Mensah is debatable.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
