The Minnesota Vikings have reportedly traded starting offensive guard Ezra Cleveland to the Jacksonville Jaguars, sources with knowledge of the situation told NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero and Mike Garafolo on Tuesday (October 31), hours before the NFL trade deadline.
"The #Vikings are trading standout guard Ezra Cleveland to the #Jaguars, per me, @TomPelissero and @MikeGarafolo. One of the better young players at his position, Cleveland moves on to beef up another O-line in exchange for a third-day draft pick," Rapoport wrote on his X account.
Cleveland started in the Vikings' first six games before missing the past two games due to a foot injury he suffered in the team's Week 6 win against the Chicago Bears. Veteran offensive guard Dalton Rinser, who signed a one-year, $3 million free agency deal in September, has started in Cleveland's absence.
The reported move came minutes after the Vikings acquired veteran quarterback Joshua Dobbs in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals amid Kirk Cousins' season-ending Achilles injury. Dobbs has started in all of the Cardinals' first eight games of the 2023 season amid Kyler Murray's recovery from a torn ACL suffered late last season.
Murray, the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, was removed from Arizona's injury report last week and could potentially make his season debut this week. Dobbs has thrown for 1,569 yards, eight touchdowns and five interceptions on 167 of 266 (62.8 completion percentage) in 2023.
Cousins suffered an Achilles tendon tear during Sunday's (October 29) game against the Green Bay Packers, the Vikings officially announced following an MRI Monday (October 30) morning.