The Vikings have traded DE Erasmus James to the Washington Redskins for a conditional 7th round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.  James had been limping around in the off season and the Vikings just couldn’t depend on him staying healthy.  So they figured it was best to just cut bait with James and at least they got something for him instead of just releasing him.  James has been a huge disappointment for the Vikings in his career.  James played in 6 games last season for the Vikings and he made a whopping 7 tackles.  James finishes his career with the Vikings having played in 23 games in which he made 37 tackles, had 5 sacks and defended two passes.

The Vikings have acquired 26-year old, Pro Bowl DE Jared Allen from the Chiefs.  The Vikings will part with at least the #17 (1st round) pick in the NFL Draft and the #72 selection (3rd round) for Allen.  Allen fits a huge need for the Vikings as they haven’t had much of a pass rush the last few seasons.  Allen played in 14 games for the Chiefs last season and he made 64 tackles, had 15.5 sacks (#1 in NFL) and he defensed 10 passes.  Allen has now played in 61 games (55 starts) in his NFL career and he has made 227 tackles, has 43 sacks, defensed 25 passes and intercepted a pass.  Adding Allen will make the Vikings’ defense even more dominating than usual.  Now all they need is a NFL QB.