Could this ESPN-proposed Vikings/Chargers trade actually happen?

We’re getting ever closer to the (possible) start of Training Camp for NFL teams, and while the Minnesota Vikings haven’t made a whole lot of moves recently. . .to this point, they haven’t even signed any of their 15 draft choices. . .could there be a trade in the offing for the purple?

Over at ESPN, Field Yates put together a list of five NFL trades that would make sense, and one of those trades involves our favorite football team. Yates’ proposed deal has the Vikings sending left tackle Riley Reiff to the Los Angeles Chargers (while agreeing to pick up $3.8 million of his base salary) in exchange for cornerback Desmond King.

For a team that’s in the sort of cap situation that the Vikings are in, potentially dealing Reiff could potentially make a whole lot of sense. His cap figure for the 2021 season sits at just under $14 million, and the Vikings would only be on the hook for a little over $2 million if they were to let him go. They’d also save a decent chunk of money this season if they were to trade him as well. As Yates points out, that would leave the Vikings in a spot where they would have to throw rookie Ezra Cleveland into the fire immediately as a starter. If the Vikings are comfortable with that, and they can’t agree to some sort of a restructure with Reiff, trading him might not be the worst idea.

King is in the final year of his rookie contract, with a cap figure of about $2.2 million for this season. He was outstanding in 2018, being named an All-Pro as both a cornerback and a punt returner that season, but had a bit of a drop-off in 2019 and wound up suspended for the team’s final game for a violation of team rules. While the Vikings did use two of their top four picks in the 2020 NFL Draft on cornerbacks, they have plenty of questions on the back end of the defense between players that can’t stay healthy (Mike Hughes), players that can’t stop getting suspended (Holton Hill), and rookies (Jeff Gladney and Cameron Dantzler). King could answer quite a few of those questions right away, and would immediately step in as the top punt returner as well.

This may sound like a trade that’s nothing more than a flight of fancy from people that need things to write about. . .I can assure you, I know exactly what that feels like. However, one of King’s former college teammates at the University of Iowa must have read Yates’ article as well.

I don’t think Jaleel Johnson is tweeting about The Dark Knight or anything, and given the connection from their time with the Hawkeyes, there’s at least a chance that Johnson is talking about Desmond King. I’m sure that the two of them still keep in touch. . .maybe the big man knows something that the rest of us don’t.

Or maybe he’s just bored, too. Who knows, really?

What do you think, folks? Is a Riley Reiff for Desmond King trade something that you’d like to see happen?