Vikings Trade G Jesse Davis to Steelers For Conditional 2025 Seventh

The Vikings have made their second trade of the day, sending veteran guard Jesse Davis to the Steelers for a conditional 2025 seventh-round pick, according to NFL Network. 

It's essentially a salary dump, as the Vikings save $1.5 million against the cap by dealing Davis. However, they'll have to eat $750,000 in dead money both this year and next. This move signals that the Vikings would've probably cut Davis, but decided to get anything they could for him instead.

In addition to swapping out Armon Watts (waived) for Ross Blacklock (acquired from the Texans) on the defensive line, the Vikings have freed up nearly $3 million in cap space on Tuesday.

Davis, who started 72 games for the Dolphins over the past five seasons, was signed in March. At the time, he seemed like the frontrunner to start for the Vikings at right guard, a position where he's seen slightly more success in his career than when playing tackle. But the Vikings drafted Ed Ingram out of LSU in the second round in April, and Ingram was able to beat out Davis for the job over the course of training camp.

With Ingram winning the RG job and the Vikings also have capable, cheaper interior depth in the form of fellow free agent pickups Chris Reed and Austin Schlottmann, Davis was expendable. Now he joins former Viking Mason Cole on the interior of the Steelers' offensive line.