Even knowing he'd largely be a non-factor during his rookie season due to a torn ACL in his final college game, the Detroit Lions made a bold trade up for wide receiver Jameson Williams in the 2022 draft. They surrendered picks 32, 34 and 66 to the division rival Minnesota Vikings move up to No. 12.
Once the Vikings were done dealing, as they sent pick No. 34 to the Green Bay Packers (who took Christian Watson) they had picks No. 42 and 59 along with No. 32 and No. 66.
Williams has shown flashes of his ability over his first two seasons, but the way has been paved for him to have a bigger role this year and a breakout could be coming. The signs late last season were overall very encouraging as a pre-cursor for a breakthrough.
While the Lions got Williams, here's who the Vikings took with the picks they ultimately had from that trade.
Pick No. 32: S Lewis Cine
Pick No. 42: CB Andrew Booth
Pick No. 59: OG Ed Ingram
Pick No. 66: LB Brian Asamoah
Vikings have gotten basically nothing from their end of Jameson Williams trade
Cine gets a bit of an injury mulligan, since a major leg injury ended his rookie season in Week 4. But he hadn't done much before that (he was a healthy scratch in Week 1). Even presumably back to health last year, he played in just seven games and all eight defensive snaps he saw came in a blowout loss to the Packers in Week 17. A minicamp report from ESPN suggested Cine is "no better than the sixth safety on the roster."
Booth is right alongside Cine on the wrong side of the Vikings' roster bubble. He didn't play a defensive snap until the ninth game of his rookie season, and 105 of his 256 career defensive snaps came over that and the following game. He has made one career start, against the Lions to end last season.
Asamoah was seen as a player with potential early on. But that has yielded a whole lot of nothing through two seasons, with zero starts in 29 games spent mostly on special teams. Last year, he played just 36 defensive snaps. He'll probably make the Vikings' roster this year, but he's not lined up to be a difference maker.
Ingram has started 32 games at right guard for the Vikings over two seasons. He was Pro Football Focus' No. 38 guard last year (out of 79 qualifiers). But that his 42 pressures allowed last year was a noticeable improvement over his rookie season (58 pressures allowed during the regular season) is telling. He also played two fewer games last year.
Ingram is essentially a replacement-level starting guard, and the Vikings made a move toward trying to replace him by bringing back Dalton Risner.
But Ingram the best return the Vikings have gotten as a result of the deal with the Lions, which says it all.
While Lions fans can have some concern or skepticism about Williams if they want to, at least he's looking good now and looked worthy of the opportunity in front of him during offseason work. The Vikings have no such hope for any of the four players they took with picks from that draft deal, and the one starter they managed to procure looks ripe to be replaced as soon as plausible.