Getty Edge rusher Danielle Hunter of the Minnesota Vikings rushes the quarterback during a game against the Chicago Bears in January 2023.
Danielle Hunter‘s holdout from Minnesota Vikings minicamp this week has sparked plenty of trade interest across the league, including the team that eliminated the Vikings from the playoffs six months ago.
“I know for a fact the New York Giants would love to have Danielle Hunter. Andre Patterson [former Vikings defensive line coach] thinks the world of him,” Wolfson said.
A defensive line guru, Patterson is credited with drafting and developing mid-round picks like Everson Griffen and Hunter into Pro Bowl talents during his tenure under Mike Zimmer. Patterson moved on to join the Giants after he was not retained by the new regime.
Patterson’s departure sparked a scare that Hunter could leave as well. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah made sure to get on the same page as Hunter upon his hiring, making the Pro Bowl pass rusher one of his first phone calls.
“Danielle was one of the first people I spoke with,” Adofo-Mensah said in February 2022. “Really good player. Really good person. He’s a really good football player and to build a championship team you need a lot of really good football players. He’s someone we want to work with going forward.”
Adofo-Mensah’s words back then align with Wolfson’s report that the Vikings have every intention of keeping Hunter despite the holdout.
A deal should be finalized before training camp in late July if that proves true. Otherwise, the possibility of a trade will continue to grow after NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported the Vikings have fielded trade calls for the three-time Pro Bowler.
Pro Football Focus’ Brad Spielberger proposed the Giants should be a team that has interest in Hunter.
Kevin O’Connell Cautiously Optimistic About Vikings, Danielle Hunter Deal
Addressing Hunter’s absence at mandatory minicamps this week, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was even-keeled on his best defensive player missing.
“The only thing I would just say is I’ve got all the respect in the world for Danielle as a player, a leader, a person on our team,” O’Connell said. “Those situations, you know, I don’t want to speak for Kwesi, but we feel very strongly about being solution-oriented with everything that comes about.”
O’Connell added that he would “like to think” that reaching an agreement to keep Hunter in Minnesota is possible.
“When I say ‘solution-oriented,’ that is definitely one of the solutions that hopefully we can work toward,” he said.
O’Connell’s answers aren’t quite as encouraging when you hear the new regime speak of keeping Justin Jefferson around. The Vikings appear open to trade offers and are entertaining all options on Hunter’s future.
Danielle Hunter Trade Could Yield Vikings New Franchise QB
The Vikings embark on what could be their final season with Kirk Cousins under center.
Cousins has brought steady play to the position the past five seasons but has won just one playoff game in that span. Credit to Cousins, he has kept the Vikings from cratering through the decline of the 2017 NFC Championship roster. However, that’s also kept Minnesota out of range of taking a swing at a bonafide franchise quarterback in the top-five picks of the draft.
The Vikings are bound to land somewhere in the middle of the first round again this year considering the defense isn’t expected to make a drastic improvement after releasing Eric Kendricks, Dalvin Tomlinson and Za’Darius Smith.
But Minnesota could still find a way to climb up in the draft, and trading Hunter could be the necessary evil needed to make that happen.
Hunter is 28 years old and could still garner a first-round selection that would be needed to make a significant leap up the draft board in 2024.
