PFF Trade Proposal: Vikings Acquire CB K'Waun Williams From Broncos

Here's why Williams makes a lot of sense as a potential Vikings target before the trade deadline.

What's the Vikings' biggest positional weakness? 

Offensively, it's probably rookie right guard Ed Ingram, who has struggled in pass protection in his first six NFL games. The good news on that front is Ingram's athleticism, draft pedigree, and youth suggest he could improve as the season goes along. 

Defensively, it's slot cornerback Chandon Sullivan. The fifth-year veteran has shown some flashes and has mostly been solid as a tackler, but he's had a rough time in coverage. Sullivan has the lowest PFF grade of any Vikings starter on either side of the ball and leads the league in yards allowed from the slot by a wide margin, with 347. Sullivan has allowed a passer rating of 130.2 on targets against him when in slot coverage and is the main reason why the Vikings rank last in PFF coverage grade for players lined up as slot cornerbacks.

With the trade deadline a week away (November 1st), slot corner seems like an obvious position for the Vikings and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to address, given that Sullivan is a known commodity. They have basically zero cap space at the moment, but can move some things around with contract restructures or extensions to create room.

Here's a proposal from PFF's Brad Spielberger: the Vikings send a fifth-round pick to the Broncos for K'Waun Williams, a quietly reliable slot corner with some connections to Vikings leadership.

The Vikings currently have the league’s worst grade for defenders lined up in the slot (43.8), and Williams has a proven track record over the past decade of consistent play in all facets, grading above 60.0 as a run-defender and in coverage for every season of his career beyond his rookie campaign.

Since 2019, Williams’ 0.89 yards per coverage snap allowed ranks fifth, his 13 stops as a run-defender ranks tied for fourth and his seven tackles for loss or no gain ranks tied for second among slot cornerbacks. He’s an impact player over the middle where Minnesota has been susceptible, and closing their weak link on the backend could propel the Vikings to a legitimate playoff run in a weak NFC after a strong start to their season.

The Vikings and Broncos are first and third, respectively, in percent of coverage snaps lined up in Cover 6, with Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell holding that position in Denver last season. Both defenses are zone coverage-heavy, so Williams should transition seamlessly. Broncos general manager George Paton was the assistant general manager for the Vikings for almost a decade, another connection between the two clubs that have already traded with each other since he made the move out west in 2021. 

This move makes a ton of sense to me for a variety of reasons.

The Paton connection might matter a bit less with Rick Spielman gone, but Rob Brzezinski and other front office staffers who worked with Paton are still in Minnesota. There are other connections here, too. Take a look at Williams' career and you'll notice that he has crossed paths with several key Vikings coaches and executives over the years.

Williams, 31, signed with the Browns as an undrafted free agent out of Pitt in 2014. In 2015, O'Connell overlapped with him as the quarterbacks coach in Cleveland. Williams was briefly with Ed Donatell in Chicago in 2016 before spending the last five seasons with the 49ers, overlapping with Adofo-Mensah from 2017-19. He signed with the Broncos this offseason.

Even at 31 years old, Williams would provide a boost to the Vikings' defense as an upgrade from Sullivan. Like Spielberger said, he's been a productive player every year and wouldn't have too much difficulty adjusting to the scheme in Minnesota. Williams, who is exclusively a slot corner at 5'9", 185 pounds, has posted a PFF grade above 66 in every season of his career except 2021, when he was at 63.3.

Williams is an experienced veteran who can do just about everything at a solid level. He has good career grades across the board — run defense, tackling, coverage, and even pass rush. Across eight seasons, he has played in 98 games with 49 starts, racking up 4 interceptions, 29 passes defended, 11 forced fumbles, 23 TFLs, 8 sacks, and 47 pressures. Most importantly, Williams has allowed a passer rating below 90 on targets in his coverage in six of eight seasons and each of the last four. He's an explosive, instinctual tackler who is rarely caught out of position in coverage.

Every year, K'Waun Williams just continues to be an ass kicker for the coolest defenses in the NFL. pic.twitter.com/Drhg5LA6Tr

— Robert Mays (@robertmays) October 20, 2022

At 2-5, the Broncos seem ready to sell ahead of next Tuesday's deadline, particularly if they lose to the Jaguars on Sunday. A fifth-round pick could get a deal done, and the Vikings should be aggressive about patching up their weaknesses after starting 5-1 and putting themselves in a great position in the NFC playoff picture. It wouldn't be too difficult to free up the cap space to make it happen, as Williams is in the first year of a two-year, $5.2 million deal.

Trading for Williams — or a similar slot corner — feels like a move the Vikings should strongly consider.

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