Vikings Reportedly Exploring Trade for a Center

Per Darren Wolfson of KSTP Sports, on the SKOR North show, the Vikings are exploring a trade for a center.

Wolfson says that according to his sources, the Vikings are looking to trade for a center that is currently on another team’s roster, rather than looking for a free agent (which obviously wouldn’t be a trade scenario). He added that it might be more with AFC Teams that they’re looking to make a deal.

With Garrett Bradbury failing to impress in pass protection so far in training camp, the Vikings have apparently moved Chris Reed to center, and have him practicing snaps and so forth to foster some competition at the center position. Austin Schlottmann and UDFA Josh Sokol are the other centers currently on the roster.

The Vikings have enough salary cap space where they could entertain picking up a free agent center- and JC Tretter frequently tops the list for teams looking for a starting center- but there has also been some reporting that the Vikings have never been serious about acquiring Tretter. The Bucs, who are definitely in win-now mode, also have not signed Tretter, as was widely thought may be the case, which casts some doubt on Tretter’s true availability. He had on-going knee/ankle issues while with the Browns, so it may be that those issues are prohibitive to his being signed and/or passing a physical.

In any case, the Vikings are looking to trade for presumably another team’s backup center in hope of creating more competition at center, and possibly finding a new starter. Teams that may have drafted a center or had their starting center displaced on the depth chart, or simply have a lot of depth at the position may be candidates to make a trade. Unclear at this point which team(s) the Vikings may be discussing a trade with, or how imminent such a trade may be, but the Vikings are definitely exploring trade options according to Wolfson.

Stay tuned.