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Quarterback Sam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings.
The Minnesota Vikings would probably prefer to avoid paying Sam Darnold north of $100 million with J.J. McCarthy waiting in the wings, but letting a 14-win QB walk for nothing isn’t ideal — especially for an organization with a mostly empty cupboard when it comes to picks in the 2025 NFL draft.
One potential solution is to franchise tag Darnold for around $40 million in 2025 and then try and trade him. The “tag-and-trade” method, as the hosts of “Locked On Sports Minnesota” referred to it during the Thursday, January 23 edition of their podcast, isn’t a common occurrence in the league. And it’s even less common when it comes to quarterbacks.
“There’s not a lot of precedent for a quarterback of this age, coming off the season he had — especially when there might be mutual agreement between the player and the team that it will be a tag-and-trade situation going in,” Sam Ekstrom said. “I don’t know if that’s ever happened.”
But there is a first time for everything and tagging Darnold, now 27 years old, so as to get some value back for him makes a ton of sense for the Vikings considering how much QB need there is around the league. The inevitable question then becomes: What can Minnesota get in return for him?
Sam Darnold’s Trade Value Plummeted Over Final 2 Games of Season
GettyMinnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold.
Luke Inman, one of Ekstrom’s co-hosts, outlined the “dream scenario” for the Vikings in a Darnold tag-and-trade.
“Now your market feels like a third-rounder, late second at the very best. Like, that’s the dream,” Inman said. “Realistic scenario: two later picks — like a fourth and a 2026 fifth [rounder].”
Minnesota doesn’t have a ton of draft capital this year, though the team does have among the most salary cap space in the league heading into 2025. However, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is an analytics-driven general manager and has captained a charge to move the team in the direction of inexpensive youth rather than spending big on aging veteran talent, so he is likely to believe more strongly in building through the draft whenever possible rather than via free agency.
Vikings in Desperate Need of More Draft Capital in 2025
GettyQuarterback Sam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings.
The contract projections for Darnold — which begin at around $100 million over three years via NFL execs who spoke to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and cap out at around $160 million over four years based on Spotrac’s calculations — appear to indicate, at least on the surface, that Darnold should possess more trade value than two late-round selections.
That said, draft capital is in high demand based on the inherent upside value to any pick in any round. Case in point, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was the final selection in the final round in 2022 and started in the Super Bowl less than a year ago.
Not to mention, any team that trades for Darnold will have to carry his pricey franchise tag salary in 2025 and then foot the bill for an extension in the price/year ranges noted two paragraphs above. All of those factors minimize what the Vikings might be able to expect in return via a tag-and-trade.
