Vikings won't play Madden with Sam Darnold's future and it's easy to see why
The Minnesota Vikings are in a great spot heading into free agency with $63 million in salary cap space. They have that amount of salary cap space after their decision to not place the franchise tag on Sam Darnold, which would have shrunk that number down to $23 million ahead of the legal tampering period. […]
The Minnesota Vikings are in a great spot heading into free agency with $63 million in salary cap space. They have that amount of salary cap space after their decision to not place the franchise tag on Sam Darnold, which would have shrunk that number down to $23 million ahead of the legal tampering period.
Whether to place the franchise tag on Sam Darnold was the biggest talking point over the last few weeks. The biggest of those points was using the franchise tag to trade him. Why didn't they do it?
Why the Vikings didn't franchise tag and trade Sam Darnold
The idea of a tag-and-trade is pretty simple. You place the franchise tag on Darnold, multiple teams bid on him, and the Vikings can prosper from an asset acquisition standpoint. There are multiple caveats around that potential idea.
First, the Vikings would have had to feel like they had a market. There are a lot of different factors that go into what his market would be. We know that Darnold is going to have a lot of suitors on the free agent market. There are half a dozen teams who are currently without a quarterback that could offer Darnold a big contract. However, that doesn't mean all of those teams will also be willing to give up draft pick compensation to pay him a market level contract.
Yes, there have been some successful franchise tag and trades. Davante Adams is one, but he was coming off of an All-Pro season and went to play with his college teammate Derek Carr. He fetched a first and a second round pick. Even with the success stories, there are the Jadeveon Clowney's where the Houston Texans got just a third round pick and two backup defensive players from the Seattle Seahawks.
Even if teams are going to try and acquire Darnold via trade, they would have to beat the third round compensatory pick the Vikings would be getting in 2026. There is a real possibility none of the presumed teams would have been willing to beat that.
The other element at play is the implications it would have on the Vikings going into free agency. Unless they have a deal worked out right away, it could have major implications on how the Vikings would be able to approach free agency, as the entire franchise tag salary cap hit would impact their potential signings.
Plus, as Baratz, a respected NFL agent, says that it massively impacts the leverage the Vikings might have. Once you know that the Vikings have to make the move, it lessens the leverage the Vikings have. Essentially, they have to know who would be making the trade with them for it to make sense. After spending a week in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine, it was obvious that the Vikings don't have that partner.
This from NBC Sports' Matthew Berry echoes the fact that there wasn't a good trade market for Darnold.
The Sam Darnold stuff is… odd. As one source said to me… something weird is going on. The Darnold stuff is all over the place, and I heard a bunch of different things, so let me try and piece it together. Here’s what I heard from a variety of sources in different conversations:
The Vikings want J.J. McCarthy to start next year. So, they don’t want to try and sign Darnold to an industry standard starting QB contract, which for a QB coming off the year he had starts at at the very minimum $40 million a year and goes up from there. So, they don’t want to do that. They have not made a contract offer to Darnold. Like, not even a low ball one. Nothing. They also don’t want to franchise tag him UNLESS they know for a fact, they can then trade him. And so far, there’s not much of a market for him. The Titans have some interest, but not enough to trade for him at the moment, especially since they may just draft Cam Ward or potentially get Aaron Rodgers. So, Darnold is stuck in this weird no man’s land at the moment. Seems crazy to think this, but if dominoes fall a specific way, there’s 100% a scenario where Sam Darnold doesn’t have a starting job next year.
Also, while the Vikings are nervous about McCarthy’s health to start the year, they would more likely sign Daniel Jones and have him back up McCarthy rather than pay up to bring back Darnold.
The reality here is this. The Vikings were (likely) unable to find the right trade partner for a price that was more than the third-round compensatory pick they are projected to get come next April.
The National Football League isn't Madden. You don't have a computer generating trades, nor can you force them. Each player trade market is different and we seen players get traded for less than their perceived "worth." The way general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah conducts business doesn't jive with taking that kind of risk.
Plus, the Vikings have a history of being very player friendly. Using the franchise tag goes against that. Sure, there are some teams that ranked highly in the NFLPA player survey, but the words of both Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell have said multiple times that Darnold deserves to hit free agency.
"There was an organizational plan in place where we wanted to have a guy that we thought we could win football games with while still attempting to draft our quarterback of the future.
"To be sitting here today, Sam Darnold, 14 wins later, his best season of his career by far. He deserves all the credit for that. We had belief in him and he earned it with his teammates on a daily basis. But then also to have J.J. McCarthy now healthy, gonna have a full offseason, I think it's going to be really exciting. We'll see how the free agency process works out for Sam."
The idea of tagging Darnold might feel like what is "best for business" when it comes to draft pick acquisition. However, it's never as simple as it may appear. It was evident that nobody was willing to pay the cost in a trade to acquire Darnold and making the franchise tag a poor decision.
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