The Vikings are sitting at 6-1 and still leading the NFC North, but the trade chatter around Minnesota keeps pointing in a few different directions. With the offense ranking 29th in total yards entering Week 9, the obvious conversation has centered on help at quarterback or running back. Still, there’s another path the Vikings could take: adding more juice to a defensive line that already has talent, but could use a different kind of threat inside.
That’s where the Philadelphia Eagles enter the picture. They’ve dropped six straight, and their roster has taken hits with center Cam Jurgens traded, right tackle Lane Johnson retired, and Jalen Hurts dealing with a blood clot issue. In that kind of situation, a player like defensive tackle Moro Ojomo could become available, and one analyst thinks Minnesota should be paying attention.
SI’s Connor Orr put Ojomo on his list of “dream trades” and made the case that he would fit what Brian Flores is doing on defense. “The Vikings have an excellent fleet of tackles who do exactly what the scheme asks of them, but Ojomo would add a pass-rushing flavor and diversify the array of pressure looks Flores’s defense throws,” Orr wrote last week.
“It’s critical for the Vikings to add a showstopping piece as the offense continues to lag. Flores is the most studied coordinator in the league right now and without an evolution midseason, the Vikings could risk losing their biggest advantage.
Ojomo is 16th in the NFL in pass-rush win rate among defensive tackles right now.”
The numbers back up the appeal. Per PFF, Ojomo is tied for first among Eagles defenders with 18 pressures. He hasn’t recorded a sack this season, but last year he finished with six sacks and 54 pressures, which ranked second on the team.
For Minnesota, the attraction is pretty clear: Ojomo would add another pass-rushing interior presence to a defense that already leans on exotic blitz looks. He could give Flores a different way to create disruption without having to manufacture pressure on every snap.
Offense still looks like the bigger need, but there’s a case for making an already strong defense even stronger. Ojomo might be that kind of swing.
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The late stages had all the drama of a breakthrough moment, with the Gophers answering the challenge and forcing the Hoosiers into a tense finish. Fleck also turned his attention to quarterback Drake Lindsey and the bigger picture for Minnesota, making clear the program still has room to grow if it wants to turn near-misses against top-tier competition into the kind of win that sticks. [Read more 🡒]
