Wow. We traded two 6ths for Harrison Philips, DT from Minny. Above average run blocker for two dart throw picks. No money guaranteed last this year. Love the move. and Schefter says Vikes are eating half of his $7 mil owed this year. Even better.
I wonder if the Browns trade was conditional picks? This one for Phillips is an upgrade to our current DL room.
we may have had more than one 2026 sixth. Phillips is the immediate starter next to Q and we’re paying him $3.7 mil. Huge W.
I like that our FO recognized a hole on the team and was able to in one day before the season starts bring in both a starter and rotational piece. Far better than being passive and waiting for cuts.
We had two sixth, now two seven and one starter next to Q and one solid upgrade behind both. Adding to that the trade for Philips cost us the sixth in 2026 and sixth in 2027 plus a seventh in 2027
Jowon Briggs and Harrison Phillips are really nice trades at the position of need. DT was a weakness, which I wanted us to address in the 3d round of the draft. We gave up 3 6s and got back 2 7th to get them, but this is definitely worth it. Briggs is a 7th round pick, but played well in preseason and even last year in limited reps. I read some Browns boards about him. The consensus is that he is a good player they didn't want to lose, but they have great depth at DT, so they don't really need him. Some said they actually like him more than other players on the roster, but they are deep so it's OK. For us though, given he has some history and played well in both preseason and regular season when he got a chance, to spend a 6th for him, and also get 7th back is a great deal. We still have 3 years left on a rookie deal and have some proven reps and do not have to go through rookie growing pains. Love that deal. Phillips is durable 17 game starter for last 3 years. Now, he is overpaid and he done worse since signing his extension, which is why Minny covered half of his salary but he is immediate starter for us with Cowart out. Looks like Cowart may be out for some time or I doubt we would make that move, but when he is back, if guys can stay healthy we might have some OK depth at DT. And if he does do well, we have an option year on him, so it is not just a short term rental necessarily. Overall very good moves by AG and Mooge.
I may be reading this wrong but are you saying the Jets gave up a third round pick in ‘26 and ‘27 for Phillips? I’ve read the trade only invoked sixth and seventh round picks?
They had 4 according to https://www.tankathon.com/nfl/jets, their own, Denver's, Buffalo's and Baltimore's
Still curious how Mougey was able to get a longtime starting DT and promising young DT who's already played very well for so cheap. But they look like great moves on paper and make the position something to no longer be too concerned about. Sounds like Cowart may miss some time. My guess is the DT room is: Quinnen - Phillips - Briggs - Tufele - Taylor with Cowart on IR. Taylor and Tufele are younger and have shown something. Nnadi sounds like he's pretty washed.
Well I hope we can start keeping some of these DTs…feels like under JD he would have a decent one then just let them go…we could have kept Rankins who was pretty good….clearly JD didn’t value DTs as much outside of Q
I still chuckle how JD was patting himself on the back for how deep our DL was last year with the addition of two awesome UDFA’s.
I find it's always good to go to the other team's discussion board to see what they think about the player they traded. Here is pretty much the consensus on Phillips from Minny fans: "We had 8 rosterable defensive tackles. they must have felt that the group of Redmond, Taimani, Drake-Rodriquez, and Williams can give them 80% of what Phillips can do" "I would have liked to see more value gotten out of this for sure, but I think the latter point is probably the biggest. Besides the names you listed, we also have Jalen Redmond, who came on strong for us last season and was balling out in the offseason. So we had a total of 7 IDL guys we wanted to keep on the roster, and I think 6 was gonna be the number we knew we’d end up keeping. So facing the options between just cutting one of them and getting some savings and draft capital back with Phillips, we decided on the latter. Basically it seems Phillips is still a little better than some of the younger guys that stepped up in camp, but rather than losing one of them for nothing, they took 80% of production on younger guys plus the 4 mil off the CAP and two 6 round pick for one 7th. Which is a very good value for us, as stated by Viking fans themselves. Very positive comments on Briggs as well from the Browns' fans, who felt he is a good depth player, and maybe a little better than some who will now make the team, but effectively they are too deep at the position and it makes sense to get upgraded draft pick rather than lose someone almost just as good for nothing. This is all good news - basically Mooge is remediating the fact we were not able to bring good DTs into our own camp so that we wouldn't have to spend capital, and the one good one we did bring (Cowart) is injured. So, good trades for us to be sure, but would be nice to have some of our own guys pan out so we would not have to pay anything at all. It seems aside from top two selections only Arian Smith showed some good flashes in camp. Slow CB Thomas disappointed so far and I haven't heard anything about the 5th round guys just yet.
Good to hear about the DTs…that has been a hole on our roster for sure, and while I’ll admit I don’t know much about either guy we just traded for, I’m glad to hear that Philips is a good starting quality guy As to the draft, we gave JD a lot of shit for not finding good players in the mid- and later rounds, but so far, Mougey feels pretty much the same…I’m high on Membou, and also Taylor, but after the first two rounds, I’m not sure we have anybody that will impact much if at all…I wasn’t high on the receiver with bad hands, and he’s had a couple drops in preseason as well, so I think the rep is legit…not sure if he’ll be able to turn it around or not, but we’ll see…I also wasn’t high on a slow corner and again, so far, he hasn’t shown much either. Way early still…let’s see how they all do in real games before casting judgment but so far, it’s not looking amazing
I think for a 4th round pick, Smith has done very well so far. Take a look at this review, which includes all 22. Blewitt is a cofounder of JetsXFactor and is solid analyst of film. But even without it you can see some finer detail on all 22. He created a lot of opportunities basically on his own, did catch two passes and should have had a PI as well. Overall, for a 4th round pick this was not a bad showing at all for him. And followed up with good practice. Other guys beyond second round I agree have done nothing. Now, of course I do not expect them to hit on all, but would have like to see at least one more guy from lower round picks with some flashes aside from Arian. And we absolutely cannot have 3d round pick as a bust, which not saying Thomas is that, but at least so far the reports have not been good.
