Analyzing the 2023 trade deadline moves: Washington defensive ends going different ways at the deadline

Ezra Cleveland traded from the Vikings to the Jaguars

Jacksonville adds insurance to the interior O-line

Jaguars receive: Ezra Cleveland

Vikings receive: 2024 sixth-round draft pick

Based on weight that some other names have among the public, the Niners getting Chase Young for a third-round pick and a couple of these other trades may appear to be bigger “steals” but I could argue the Jags sending a sixth-rounder to Minnesota for Ezra Cleveland is the savviest move among them.

The fourth-year guard out of Boise State has not been a standout performer necessarily and some fans had wanted a replacement, but he’s been above-average starter ever since being put in the lineup, which he had done for 45 straight games with the Vikings.

This season, he’s off to his best start, earning a 73.8 overall grade from Pro Football Focus (eighth-best among 84 qualified guards), having allowed just ten pressures and one sack across 248 pass blocking snaps.

Looking at that front-five for Jacksonville, they’re pretty happy with how consistent Luke Fortner has been at center through 25 career games – which he’s started all of them – and with Cam Robinson back from suspension, Walker Little has moved inside from tackle to guard on the left side.

However, otherwise they only had Tyler Shatley to back up those interior spots (as more of a designated center) and you’d like the flexibility and you’d like to be able to kick Little out to tackle, if one of those book-end goes down. Jacksonville has reportedly been looking for answers along the middle of the offensive line, as they’re currently on a five-game winning streak and have real expectations to compete for a much murkier AFC than we initially thought.

So even if Cleveland doesn’t start (right now), they’re being pro-active here, to add insurance at a position group that had the potential to become a problem area. I think that was great process, to stay patient and ultimately acquire a proven asset at a fairly shallow position group.

While this wasn’t necessarily on my radar, unless the Vikings lost the game along with Kirk Cousins on Sunday and had gone into wholesale mode, this isn’t necessarily shocking on their end. They did sign veteran Dalton Risner following week two, who was actually a better player than Cleveland throughout his rookie deal but somewhat inexplicably wasn’t scooped up by anybody throughout the offseason, coming off a late-season elbow injury.

So while he’s been called into action these last two weeks in place of the other starting guard Ed Ingram, I’m guessing they still want to see what they have in the second-year man and don’t look at Risner as a substantial downgrade to Cleveland on the left side, while depth may not be much of a consideration, if they’re being honest with their own expectations.

For either one of those two, maybe getting a little better than a latter-half sixth-rounder would have been nice for Minnesota, but it’s pretty fair. And I wanted to quickly address the fact that Danielle Hunter wasn’t traded, after he had been one of the names discussed the most leading up to the deadline, in relation to where Minnesota may stand at this point.

Even though the Kirk Cousins injury certainly hurt their expectations for the rest of the season, now being 4-4 and not being in a wholesale mode, to bring down the general feeling around the team even further now, I believe the Vikings were looking to get back at least a second-round pick plus a little extra in return. No other teams were willing to give that up for half a season of the veteran edge rusher and therefore a I deal didn’t get.