About Next Season...

When you say "significant value", are you inferring draft picks or players in return for trading someone? If it's the latter, without looking at data I would tend to agree - you don't often see great swings in value when both teams involved in the trade are trading players.

However, I would argue that you still see significant draft capital being traded in exchange for a player. 

Here are some 2021 trades that involved either some "significant" draft capital or a "significant" player, IMO:

- ATL traded WR Julio Jones & 6th Rd pick to TEN for 2nd Rd (2022) and 4th Rd (2023) 
- BAL traded OT Orlando Brown, Jr., 2nd Rd (2021), 6th Rd (2022) to KC for 1st Rd (2021), 3rd Rd (2021), 4th Rd (2021) and 5th Rd (2022)
- NYJ traded QB Sam Darnold to CAR for 2nd Rd (2022), 4th Rd (2022) and 6th Rd (2021)
- PHI traded QB Carson Wentz to IND for conditional 1st/2nd Rd (2022) and 3rd Rd (2021)
- DET traded QB Matthew Stafford to LAR for QB Jared Goff, 1st Rd (2022), 1st Rd (2023) and 3rd Rd (2021)

While it's debatable what sort of draft capital or player compensation the Vikings could reasonably expect in return for players like Cook & Thielen (their contracts would come into play, as well), there is some "significant" draft capital being thrown around if there's a strong need out there. KC had a strong need to rebuild their OL and were willing to part with a decent amt of draft capital to help with that process in their trade for Orlando Brown, Jr. The LAR obviously had a need for a stronger QB than Goff and gave multiple future 1st Rd draft picks to DET to get him. 

As far as trades being "duds", I'm not sure I fully agree there. I would contend the Vikings certainly received solid value in 2020 when they traded Diggs to BUF - the rec'd Justin Jefferson who has turned out to be a very good WR on a cheap, rookie contract for 4 years. I think the Cardinals received a solid return when they acquired WR DeAndre Hopkins for basically just a 2nd Rd pick (2020) and RB David Johnson. 

If the Vikings fall to 2-4 after this weekend's game in Carolina, I think it's reasonable to conclude that the chances of the 2021 team making any serious postseason runs are remote, and with the trade deadline approaching on 11/2, it would also be reasonable for the team to start taking a hard look at not just the coaching staff, but the roster and start looking at 2022+ and possibly moving people if the team believes they could get reasonable value in return. Now, the personnel in the Vikings Front Office performing those trades (ie, Rick Spielman)? It's certainly fair game to ask the question of whether or not the team would want him being the one to maneuver any firesale, but regardless of who it is, I believe it's at least possible to get decent quality in return. As far as which player and what sort of quality return you could expect for that player - that would require further data analysis of recent trade activity and what their contract situation is.