The Minnesota Vikings have a major decision to make when it comes to quarterback Sam Darnold. Will they end up placing the franchise tag on him as a method to keep him or trade him? That’s the biggest question right now while teams are at the National Football League Scouting Combine.
The first domino that needed to fall was where Matthew Stafford was going to play. He chose to return to the Los Angeles Rams on Friday afternoon on a restructured contract.
Being that it’s one of the more compelling stories in the NFL this year, it’s going to be talked about at length. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero spoke about it on The Rich Eisen Show Friday morning and related it to the Stafford situation, as they share the same agency.
“You know, he has the same agency that that Matthew Stafford does. And so again, these these parts are very much interconnected here with Darnold, he’s a younger player, 27 years old, coming off of a Pro Bowl, his best season on a one year contract. And there’s just not a lot of precedent out there for teams to let a guy like that walk for a future, potential compensatory draft pick. And so, you know, in a perfect world, I believe, based on everything that I know and understand the dynamics here, I believe the best outcome for everyone would be Matthew Stafford (he misspoke and meant Darnold) comes back to Minnesota, they’re able to work out some type of deal similar to like the baker Mayfield deal in Tampa, after he went there, had a big year on a one year contract. It wasn’t a top of the market deal, it wasn’t a bargain basement deal, but it was a good, solid contract that gave him a one plus year guarantee, and then, you know, gave the bucks the opportunity to kind of go year to year on that into the future.”
There seems to be a narrative around the national media that the Vikings should bring back Darnold, and they seem to be ignoring that J.J. McCarthy was just selected 10th overall in last April’s NFL Draft.
Pelissero addressed it with an eloquent answer that broke down how general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah attacked free agency around free agency last year while pairing it with the uncertainty with McCarthy’s odd rookie season.
“You know the difference is, the Vikings have their quarterback in the future, JJ McCarthy, already on the roster. You know that his time is coming. But there’s also no precedent for a 22-year-old quarterback, first-round pick who missed his entire rookie season because of injury and all those reps to then come back, there’s just, there’s no track record on it, and so they’ve got some very unique dynamics at play here. There has been certainly real conversation about using the tag on Sam Darnold. But if you tag Darnold, you also run the risk that he could run in immediately sign it. We do about $40 million fully guaranteed in 2025 and at a time that the Vikings also need to address the interior their offensive line. They’re trying to get Aaron Jones back. Their entire starting secondary are free agents. And then also, if you’re eating up $40 million of the cap and you can’t, you don’t really have any flexibility with that, that can create some challenges.
“I know this the way that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah thinks about this. He comes from a quantitative background, and it’s about, how do we put together a roster that is going to be championship caliber around the quarterback, whoever that might be last year? The answer was, we’re going to get Darnold for 10 million we’re going to draft somebody, and we’re going to spend the money go on man a very good free agency with Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman and Aaron Jones, among others. You know bunch of impact players. Jonathan Greenard, that’s how they put it together, and it worked really well, and they won 14 games this time around. Does it make sense to go and spend 3035, $40 million maybe more, on Sam Darnold? Or do you go, we’ll bring in Daniel Jones on a similar type of contract that Donald had let him duke it out in camp with JJ McCarthy and and find out what’s happened. you know tag and trade, Susie also can’t be ruled out here if they feel like there’s a real market so big decisions ahead of the next 72 hours or so.”
The Mayfield contract has been discussed multiple times, and it makes sense. It made even more sense when the quarterback franchise tag came in at a shade over $40 million instead of $42 million. It’s arguably smarter to give a player a bigger number on a one-year deal than on a multi-year deal when you aren’t quite sure you want to commit to the long term.
The answer to what the Vikings will end up doing is going to come in time, but it’s clear that the insiders going around in circles about this topic that the Vikings haven’t made up their minds.
