Inside The Vikings

Vikings May Not Have Much Luck Trying to Trade Veteran Defensive Tackle

The Vikings have reportedly had trade talks involving Javon Hargrave. Will a team actually part ways with a draft pick to acquire him?
Will Ragatz|
Javon Hargrave
Javon Hargrave | Images Courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

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Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings have engaged in trade talks with teams around veteran defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, according to insider Jordan Schultz. Whether that's actually a realistic outcome remains to be seen.

Frankly, that tweet from Schultz reads as coming straight from the Vikings in an effort to drum up trade interest via a public-facing reporter. Yes, Hargrave is a two-time Pro Bowler, but he's also a couple years (and a significant injury) removed from his most recent Pro Bowl season.

Hargrave has a $21.4 million cap hit in 2026, which almost certainly will not remain on the Vikings' books in its current form. Any team trading for him would take on $15 million of that, $4 million of which is guaranteed. That's a big chunk of salary to take on for a 33-year-old defensive tackle coming off a season where he recorded 31 pressures and 3.5 sacks on fewer than 550 total snaps.

Even for teams in need of DT help, how much appeal is there in giving up a draft pick to take on that Hargrave contract? Anything is possible, but it feels like the Vikings would have to eat some of that $15 million — in addition to $6.4+ million of dead cap they'd already be taking on — in order to make a deal happen. At that point, the question is essentially how much the Vikings are willing to pay to land a late-round pick.

Outside of draft compensation, the Vikings could be incentivized to eat some additional money to trade Hargrave, given that doing so would come with $4 million more in cap savings — and $4 million less in dead money — than cutting him.

Still, what feels more likely is that Hargrave ends up as a cap casualty and becomes a free agent for the second straight offseason. He should have no issue finding a new home for 2026, but it would seem to make more sense for an interested team to call the Vikings' bluff and wait for him to be cut.

Hargrave signed a two-year, $30 million deal with the Vikings last offseason after being released by the 49ers. He played in 16 of 17 games but saw only 537 total snaps (33.6 per game), which was well below Jonathan Allen and Jalen Redmond and only 76 more than Levi Drake Rodriguez. Hargrave played pretty well — his 68.0 PFF grade ranked 24th out of 62 DTs who played at least 500 snaps — but he had just 1.5 sacks after Week 1 and didn't provide the kind of consistent impact the Vikings were hoping for.

Whether via trade or release, Hargrave seems unlikely to be on the Vikings' roster a month from now. If he does return, it would likely be on a restructured deal — and that would probably mean parting ways with Allen instead. The emergence of Redmond and the Vikings' need to free up cap space makes it hard to envision both Hargrave and Allen returning in 2026.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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