It’s pretty rare in the NFL to see player-for-player trades, but we got one of them on Friday. And featuring two players at the same position, no less. The Dallas Cowboys are sending cornerback Nahshon Wright to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for cornerback Andrew Booth Jr., the Vikings announced.
Wright was selected by Dallas in the third round (No. 99 overall) back in 2021, while Booth was a second-round pick (No. 42 overall) the following year. Neither player carved out a significant role with their initial team, as Wright played only 269 defensive snaps for Dallas across his three seasons there, while Booth played 256 in his two years with Minnesota.
At 6-foot-4, Wright is tied with six other players (including Seahawks corner Riq Woolen) as the tallest cornerback in NFL history. He struggled to deal with shiftier wide receivers who could change directions quickly while in college at Oregon State, and that issue has thus far carried over to the pros. The hope is likely that Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores can find a way to weaponize his size and length in a way the Cowboys could not.
Booth struggled in coverage during his rookie year before undergoing season-ending knee surgery, then failed to carve out a role in Flores’ defense during Year 2 as the new coordinator relied instead on more versatile players like Byron Murphy, Akayleb Evans, Josh Metellus and Camryn Bynum alongside Harrison Smith in the secondary. New Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer was previously the Vikings’ head coach, but he was fired before the team drafted Booth out of Clemson.
Cowboys: B-
Dallas is taking a shot on a former second-round pick with two years of team control remaining on his rookie deal, hoping that a change of scenery and a new scheme can help tap into what made him a sought-after prospect. For the price of a fourth-year player who was probably going to be cut, it’s a decent gamble — even if it’s unlikely to pay big dividends.
Vikings: C-
Wright is in the final year of his rookie contract and has yet to show he’s an NFL-caliber corner, so even though it appears that Booth was not in Minnesota’s plans, bailing on him and only getting a player who has thus far been exclusively a special-teamer in return is not particularly good asset management. They might not lose much by cutting ties with Booth, but they didn’t get much, either.
