Trades in the weeks before the draft happen. a month before the draft, every team should have a very solid idea of how their first round board looks like. In this draft, it was loaded with 1st round talent at WR. Everyone understood this. Certainly the Vikings did—they were completely willing to offload a top veteran in his prime in order to likely pick a rookie replacement. This is overwhelmingly obvious.
CLEARLY, they telegraphed, a month before the draft, “their own intentions” for the draft.
you keep mentioning Ruggs. The obvious response is that Jefferson was infinitely more likely to become a superstar than Ruggs would become a convict. Had Ruggs not made that very poor decision he could have been, like Jefferson, a young star on the Bills.