The Minnesota Vikings will turn to Carson Wentz at quarterback for Monday night’s game against the Buffalo Bills, a game that will end about 16 hours shy of the NFL trade deadline, which hits at 3 p.m. CT Tuesday.

On Saturday, we found out that Kyler Murray has a Grade 2 hamstring strain, which usually takes at least three weeks to recover from, especially for a mobile QB. Meanwhile, Justin Jefferson continues to get more frustrated with every underwhelming performance that goes by.

Publicly, the Vikings have downplayed the severity of Murray’s injury. Head coach Kevin O’Connell said Saturday the team was hoping Murray would be back at practice next week, and Tom Pelissero reported that the team plans to reassess his leg before the Week 10 trip to Green Bay.

But with the trade deadline looming, national insiders have become entranced by Minnesota’s QB situation, linking the Vikings specifically to Kirk Cousins (Vegas) and Daniel Jones (Indy).

Seifert: Vikings fine with Carson Wentz… at least for now

Kevin Seifert (ESPN) says Minnesota’s quarterback plan is clearer than it looks. The Vikings are comfortable starting Wentz while Murray heals, and it would take an injury or a very bad night against Buffalo to change that before the deadline.

“So at the moment, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback situation is more clear than you might realize. The Vikings know Kyler Murray won’t play Monday night because of a strained hamstring against the Buffalo Bills, but they do not think it’s a long-term injury. And they’re just fine with backup Carson Wentz starting in his place, at least for the short term. Now, where that could change is if something happens Monday night that dramatically affects their thinking, whether it’s an injury to Wentz or just an ungodly, awful performance that makes them wonder if they can continue to play him until Kyler Murray is back. And then, if that happens, the Vikings will be in a very pressure-packed situation because the game is Monday night and the trade deadline is 4 p.m. [ET] on Tuesday.”

The QB rumors swirling around Minnesota rolled in heavy on Thursday, when NFL on Prime insider James Palmer said the Vikings haven’t ruled out trading for a quarterback. The very next day, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said on his podcast that he is watching the QB situation in Minnesota closely Monday night, as well.

Then Saturday, Schefter and Rapoport reported on ESPN.com that Daniel Jones is open to being traded and that one “speculated” landing spot was in Minnesota. Given the history with Jones, a trade between the Colts and Vikings “shouldn’t be ruled out.”

Then, there’s the Kirk Cousins reunion angle. Would the Raiders move on from Cousins? For the right price, it sounds like they would, but Tom Pelissero (The Ringer) says the Vikings have not seriously discussed trading for a quarterback.

That brings us to our second local insider with new steam on the MN Vikings QB plans before the trade deadline, Ben Goessling (Star Tribune). On Saturday evening, around the same time Seifert dropped his report, the longtime local insider said a lot of the same things.

Goessling casts doubt on Cousins or Jones reunion

Essentially, Kirk Cousins has too much baggage here. Additionally, he isn’t sure the Vikings want to take the L that trading for Cousins would represent. Three years ago, they let Kirko Chainz walk in free agency because they thought they could do better.

More than a dozen QB changes later, a deal to bring him back would mean a lot of pride being swallowed. As for Daniel Jones, he doesn’t believe the MN Vikings are interested in taking on his money for 2027. Jones has $10.51 million of his 2027 money guaranteed for injury, and it becomes fully guaranteed on March 15.

“There’s been a lot of talk, I should say, about former Vikings quarterbacks like Kirk Cousins, like Daniel Jones. It could be on the market. Checked around on this a little bit. The Cousins thing from everybody I’ve talked to seems a little less possible because number one, the Raiders are four and four. He’s playing well. And I just, I think there’s a lot of factors that would contribute to him coming back and the optics of the whole thing would be, it would be clunky. I mean, not that you rule anything out, but if you’re going to bring a quarterback like that back to Minnesota, basically to replace the guys that you drafted to succeed him effectively. I mean, J.J. McCarthy obviously is part of the reason Kirk Cousins decided not to re-sign here before the 2024 season. So that one feels like an odd fit. And then Daniel Jones, you’re talking about taking on money for next year. It’s not impossible, but those both feel like they’d be tricky fits.So you’d have to figure out what else might be out there for them if they’re going to make an addition at the position. But Murray’s injury adds to the depth question. Max Brosmer will be the backup on Monday night. What do they do if they get into an emergency situation? I think it’s reasonable to expect they’re going to look and make some calls and try to gauge some options. But some of what they do may be affected by what they see from Carson Wentz. Can he run this offense? Can he look efficient doing it?… This is the last piece of data you’re going to get before you can really make an addition for this year that could make a difference.”

Andrew Krammer (Star Tribune), who hosted the episode of Access Vikings with Goessling, ran through other possible options, including Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith and Mac Jones. He said, “the pickings seem to be slim when you look around the league.”

Don’t be discouraged by these reports, Vikings fans

For those who might get discouraged reading this, I’d like to lend some hope. It’s very possible the Minnesota Vikings do not make a move at QB before the deadline. HOWEVER, if they were digging into it behind the scenes, I would expect them to handle it exactly how they are right now.

Confirming QB trade rumors to local media would do the Vikings absolutely no good, right now. They should only be concerned with the mentals of quarterbacks currently on roster. That is their best chance of winning on Monday night.

That way, if a trade doesn’t come to fruition before Tuesday afternoon, you don’t have to confront any internal frustration over plans that never turned into action.

And let’s just say a QB trade does happen, well then they just “changed their mind” or they “got an opportunity to make the room stronger that they just couldn’t turn down.” What PR they were passing to reporters two days earlier would be the last thing on anyone’s mind, at that point.

Meanwhile, Wentz will go into Monday Night Football against the Bills having already played in two games this season. He led the Minnesota Vikings to wins in Weeks 1 and 2 against the Packers and Bears, completing 23 of 39 passes for 276 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. How he plays Monday certainly factors into this equation too.