The Percy Harvin situation is certainly a point of focus for the Minnesota Vikings. He's essentially the team's top receiving target, and a definite catalyst for Christian Ponder's development in his second year. First, Harvin was just talking about holding out in lieu of the Vikings solving some issues that the young receiver has with the organization. But now he's asked for a trade, as of Wednesday morning.
It's debatable whether or not the team would trade Harvin, but it certainly doesn't seem very likely. From the Vikings' standpoint, it wouldn't make sense to trade him at all. As SB Nation's Vikings blog, Daily Norseman points out, Harvin is a big part of Minnesota's offense:
You just don't trade a guy that was 25% of your offense on a 3-13 club. Because with the offense in it's current state, there is no value that the Vikings could receive in return that would constitute a 'good trade'. In the running game, Adrian Peterson is coming off of a devastating knee injury and could very well end up on the PUP list for the first 6 weeks of the season. Toby Gerhart is good, but Harvin and Gerhart could be a Thunder and Lightning combination that could be tantalizingly good until AP returns.
They also go on to note that this is the first real test for general manager Rick Spielman. He hasn't had to put an issue to rest yet. He's had a draft under his watch and oversaw free agency, but there's not a crisis of any kind that he's had to deal with just yet.
That said, they're confident that Spielman is the guy to get things done. The prevailing theory is that a new contract will solve things for Harvin. It's hard to argue against that, especially given the fact that Harvin is set to make just under a million dollars this season and is still playing on his rookie contract. He's under contract until 2014, but a holdout would certainly hurt the Vikings, especially with Jerome Simpson suspended.
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