The Minnesota Vikings did not spend the last week rewriting their quarterback room by accident.
After moving J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings sit with a starter and a backup both tied to one-year deals in Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz.
If Murray’s trial season does not match what general manager Nolan Teasley wants, the franchise has a rare opening to start over — free agency, the draft, or a trade. The name now floating into that opening is Justin Herbert.
The Los Angeles Chargers are 0-4, and Sports Illustrated’s Gilberto Manzano wrote on Oct. 5 that the club should consider every rebuild path, including dealing its quarterback.
“I can’t believe it has come to this point, but it’s time the 0–4 Chargers explore every option for how to best rebuild this team, including the possibility of trading Herbert (19-of-31, 189 yards, TD, 2 INTs), who struggled in the 30–23 loss to the Seahawks,” Manzano wrote.
On the price, he added that Herbert “would likely generate at least two first-round picks, as the Lions did after trading Matthew Stafford to the Rams in 2021,” and “maybe even three first-rounders, since Herbert is only 28 and Stafford got moved after turning 30.”
He also noted that some will argue recent play is not worth that ask.
From Minnesota’s side, two first-round picks is the whole argument. Teasley would be buying a 28-year-old franchise quarterback after years of incomplete answers at the position, but he would also be spending the capital that usually builds the rest of a contender.
Manzano’s case for Los Angeles is that a change of scenery may be the only way Herbert reaches Canton. “Harbaugh constantly talks about getting Herbert to Canton one day,” he wrote. “But that likely won’t happen unless the Chargers trade him.
Harbaugh hasn’t had answers on how to best protect Herbert, who was hit 10 times in Seattle, including on the lost fumble that sealed the fourth consecutive loss.” Multiple picks plus a top-five selection of their own, Manzano argued, could let the Chargers take a quarterback and a wide receiver in a loaded draft.
Vikings speculation is already attached to the idea.
SKOR North’s Thor Nystrom has said it would take a “Godfather offer” to land the Chargers star.
FanSided’s Austen Bundy, writing Sept. 22 before the McCarthy trade, pointed at Minnesota’s picks.
“The Minnesota Vikings are in a trial year with quarterback Kyler Murray (who already has health issues), and 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy is clearly on his way out after being bumped to QB3,” Bundy wrote. “Minnesota owns all of its picks for rounds one through three for the next two drafts (including an additional third-rounder from the Philadelphia Eagles). Package any number of those seven picks and Los Angeles would have a pretty good deal on its hands.”
That package is real. Whether Teasley is willing to empty it for Herbert depends on what Murray shows between now and the offseason.
