Five weeks into the season, the Jonathan Greenard trade is starting to look a lot less lopsided than it did when Minnesota first agreed to it.
The Vikings moved on from Greenard this spring after he asked for a raise they weren’t willing to match, sending the pass-rusher to Philadelphia for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 third-rounder. It was a deal they didn’t exactly celebrate at the time, with interim general manager Rob Brzezinski saying it “was not something we're jumping around excitedly about.” But with a few weeks of 2026 in the books, the return is at least tilting Minnesota’s way.
Greenard’s side of the story has been defined by availability. He missed five games in 2025 with the Vikings, and in Philadelphia he has played only twice this season.
In those two appearances, he has recorded one tackle and no sacks. The bigger concern is the broader injury picture: a shoulder, a pec and an ankle have all cost him time, and now there’s a real question about what his next stretch will look like as he moves into his thirties.
That raises an obvious question for the Eagles, who gave Greenard a $100 million deal and have not gotten much back yet. Right now, the payoff they were buying feels pushed off to 2027.
Minnesota, meanwhile, has gotten solid early results from the player stepping into Greenard’s role. Dallas Turner leads the team with 5.5 sacks, and at 23 years old, he’s giving the Vikings exactly what they wanted on the edge: a young, rising difference-maker. The long-term outlook there is easy to see.
The other piece of the trade is much murkier. Jakobe Thomas, the safety Minnesota took with the 98th overall pick, was always going to be more of a project.
He missed much of the preseason because of a back injury and has been inactive for every game so far in 2026. Even with early worries at safety because of the struggles of Harrison Smith and Joshua Metellus, the Vikings have kept the third-round pick on the sideline.
Undrafted free agent Jacob Thomas is already ahead of him on the depth chart.
So while Thomas is nowhere near being written off, he hasn’t had a chance to change the conversation yet. Minnesota still has that extra 2027 third-round pick coming, which means the full verdict on the trade won’t be settled for a while. For now, though, both teams have reasons to be uneasy about what they got back.
The Eagles have a pricey pass-rusher who has barely been on the field. The Vikings have Turner producing and a draft pick who still needs plenty of time. That doesn’t make the Greenard deal finished business, but it does make Minnesota’s side look a lot better than it did on draft night.
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