There was a time when a trip to Ford Field was a low-stress environment for the Minnesota Vikings.
The Detroit Lions were the NFC North’s favorite comfort food. When Mike Zimmer needed a win to save his job, the Lions were there. When Kirk Cousins started to struggle after a hearty “Kirktober,” Detroit gave him a little boost. Anytime the Vikings needed a pick-me-up, the Lions were the shot of dopamine that raised their spirits.
But that has changed in 2023. When the Vikings visit Ford Field for Sunday’s regular-season finale, they’ll play in front of a sold-out stadium. They’ll see an offense that’s one of the best in the NFL and a defense that has done enough to turn the Lions into a legitimate contender.
The Vikings enter Sunday’s game with a 7-9 record and an unlikely bid to make the playoffs. They could look at themselves and wonder how this happened, but the answer could be a trade that could serve as a learning experience for their front office.
Four years ago, the Lions were slumping through a 5-11 season. They had fired Matt Patricia, and Dan Campbell was threatening to eat everyone’s kneecaps. Detroit was in the middle of their third straight losing season, and there wasn’t much hope outside of Matthew Stafford.
Stafford was one of the Lions’ franchise pillars through a brief run of success, but his time was winding down. That had nothing to do with Stafford’s age; the 32-year-old still had plenty of good years left. But it was more about the team around him that was unlikely to get him to a Super Bowl.
With this in mind, new general manager Brad Holmes traded Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams. The move was seen as a reset for the Lions. Detroit went 3-13-1 in Holmes’s first season as general manager, but it was a step back to take a giant leap forward over the next two seasons.
Although the Lions got Jared Goff in the trade, they also got a haul of draft picks, including first-round draft selections in 2022 and 2023 and a third-round draft pick in 2021. While three picks and a former No. 1-overall pick seemed like a big haul, the Lions turned it into even more because it gave Holmes the flexibility to build the roster he wanted.
The Lions used the 2021 selection to take cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu, but Detroit used the rest of the picks after Holmes had made another trade. The Lions used LA’s 2022 first-round pick to trade with the Vikings for wide receiver Jameson Williams, and they used the 46th-overall pick they acquired from Minnesota to select edge rusher Josh Paschal.
Holmes also wheeled his way through the 2023 draft, trading down from the Rams’ first-round pick at No. 6 overall and selecting running back Jahmyr Gibbs at No. 12 and tight end Sam LaPorta with the 34th-overall pick acquired in that deal. That gave the Lions the injection of talent they needed when Holmes took over and built the infrastructure that would allow Goff to succeed.
Goff isn’t a perfect quarterback and probably wouldn’t drive winning in an AFC landscape loaded with franchise signal callers, but he’s good enough to work with a steady foundation like the Rams team he took to the Super Bowl in 2019.
Goff struggled during his first season in Detroit, but he started progressing as the Lions added talent around him. While Goff’s play has picked up, so has the infrastructure around him. That has led the Lions from being NFC bottom feeders to division champions in three years.
The last part is essential when considering the Vikings’ history. Many believe that if Minnesota moves on from Cousins, a free agent at the end of the year, it will take several years to reach the level of success the Lions have reached this season. But in reality, it might take a few tweaks to get it out of a similar (and cheaper) quarterback.
Minnesota is 7-9 going into Sunday’s game in Detroit, but they have several positives moving forward. Justin Jefferson should sign an extension this spring, and Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson give any quarterback enough weapons to succeed. Then there is the offensive line, which has played at its highest level in over a decade, thanks to Christian Darrisaw.
Some fans will look at this and imagine what a healthy Cousins could have done with this group, but it’s ignoring the flaws around him. Some people have blamed Minnesota’s defensive struggles on the front office’s ability to draft. But they have also been hamstrung by Cousins’ salary, which has forced them into signing risky free agents like Marcus Davenport and Byron Murphy Jr.
Could the Vikings build a Super Bowl contender with Cousins in the fold? Sure. But with Cousins entering his age 36 season, it might be time for Minnesota to look at what the Lions did and move on.
There’s a case that the Vikings are already a year too late. Cousins could have brought back several draft picks in a trade following the 2021 season. Although Minnesota won 13 games with Cousins under center in 2022, it was with a group of aging veterans whose last ride ended in the Wild Card round.
That may be good enough for some who just want the Vikings to win on any given Sunday. But it might not be good enough for fans who want to see them rebuild the defense and become legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
Cousins could be the latest in a long line of Vikings that have stayed around one year too long. The Vikings moved on from Adam Thielen, Eric Kendricks, and Dalvin Cook after retaining them in 2022, and they could have retrieved some value if Minnesota had traded them before last season.
Instead of having a surplus of draft picks in what might be the strongest class in recent memory, the Vikings have nine selections with just two picks in the first three rounds. Re-signing Cousins and hoping to hit on some Day 3 picks is one way to counter this, but it would be re-hashing the Rick Spielman ideology that put the Vikings behind the Lions.
The Lions aren’t a model franchise, but they’re doing some things right. By moving on from Stafford, Detroit took a step back to leap forward. It’s an approach the Vikings should consider when charting their path this offseason.
