The franchise tag window has passed, and the Minnesota Vikings chose not to tag quarterback Sam Darnold, who experts widely consider the best QB available this spring.
That was the logical conclusion to the choice the Vikings had this offseason, assuming they didn’t want Darnold to become the long-term solution for the team at the QB. Because the Vikings appear comfortable moving forward with J.J. McCarthy as the face of the franchise, the option of tagging Darnold became too restrictive for Minnesota to exercise.
Let’s dig into the reasons the tag wasn’t feasible.
Lack of control
The stated intent of the franchise tag is to allow the team and player more time to reach a long-term deal. The idea is that it’s best for the player to remain in the situation he succeeded in, and this gives both sides more time to negotiate on a market extension. In reality, teams typically use the tag when they don’t want to give a player a market extension but still want to keep him. Tee Higgins and the Cincinnati Bengals is the most current example.
However, a tag-and-trade scenario, which Minnesota was looking at with Darnold, flips the incentives. In this case, the team clearly didn’t want to retain the player; they just wanted to reap the benefits of his move to free agency. While tagging Darnold would have given the Vikings more control over Darnold’s next move, Darnold’s camp would have had an important lever to pull to grind Minnesota’s plans to a halt — they could have refused to sign the tag.
To extend or trade a franchise-tagged player, that player needs to sign. Refusing to sign can harm players looking for a long-term deal because they aren’t allowed to play if they never sign. But in this case, Darnold refusing to sign would have tied up the $40 million his franchise tag would have cost.
The Vikings have over $62 million in cap space, so they could absorb Darnold’s hit. However, doing so would severely limit their ability to be active in the first wave of free agency, which they must be to fill all of the holes on their roster.
In an ideal world, the Vikings would have found a trade partner for Darnold and received good compensation for him. They also would have traded him on the first day of the NFL league year, immediately freeing up the $40 million from the tag. But even if Minnesota and another team consent, Darnold can say no by refusing to sign the tag. That limits Darnold’s landing spots to teams his camp chooses, making it very difficult to franchise-tag him.
Theoretically, the Vikings could have tagged Darnold and then rescinded the tag if he refused to sign, making him an unrestricted free agent. However, the problem with that is that it still ties up cap space until the tag is rescinded. And if he signs the tag immediately, the Vikings are stuck with his cap hit until they find a trade partner.
$40 million, Minimum
Teams competing for Darnold’s services this offseason would have vastly preferred he hit unrestricted free agency rather than need to trade draft capital for him. However, it goes beyond the cost of draft capital. If the Vikings had tagged Darnold, that would have set the minimum value of his new extension at the $40 million guaranteed by the tag.
That’s problematic because $40 million per year is more than Darnold’s closest comparisons at the QB position. NFL teams and agents use precedent as benchmarks for contracts, and Darnold has two pretty clear comparisons in Baker Mayfield and Geno Smith, who flamed out early in their careers before producing well and earning large deals.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers paid Mayfield $100 million over three years, while the Seattle Seahawks paid Smith $75 million over three. If you prorate those contracts to the 2025 salary cap, Tampa would pay Mayfield $36.4 million per year, and Seattle would pay Smith $31 million annually.
If a team traded for Darnold, his agent would immediately set the $40 million on the tag as the minimum for an extension, which a team would likely balk at, given the precedent with Baker and Geno. That would also dramatically decrease what they would be willing to give up for Darnold in a tag-and-trade scenario.
Trade partners have high picks
In the musical chairs of QBs, the Vikings would have limited options for suitors this offseason. With Matthew Stafford returning to the Los Angeles Rams, the list of QB-needy teams has dwindled to six: the Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, and Pittsburgh Steelers. Five of those teams pick in the top seven, meaning their second-round picks are also in the top 40.
Teams view those picks as premium assets and would be hesitant to part with them for Darnold, who has a limited body of positive play. The Steelers may make some sense as a landing spot, but they would have to really believe in Darnold to make the move, and it’s hard to negotiate for a lot of draft capital with only one trade partner.
The reality is it’s unlikely any team was willing to part with a Day 2 pick or better to acquire Darnold via a tag and trade. That would make the risks in the first point very difficult for the Vikings to swallow.
A compensatory pick helps mitigate the loss
When Darnold signs a large contract with another team, the Vikings will be in line for a compensatory pick in 2026, likely pick No. 97, like the one they are getting for Kirk Cousins this year. Minnesota is very attentive to the compensatory pick formula.
Despite a small kerfuffle when the team signed Shaq Griffin last year, which cost the team a third-round comp pick in Over the Cap’s estimation, the team felt that Jonathan Greenard‘s contract canceled out Danielle Hunter‘s in the formula. OTC’s comp pick analyst, Nick Korte, later mentioned that Greenard was punished in his formula for low snap counts and would need to hit 70% of the snaps to qualify for a third-round pick. He played 80%.
All this is to say the Vikings will be careful when navigating free agency to ensure they get the top comp pick possible for Darnold. That sets the minimum bar for a tag-and-trade at a 2026 third-round pick, and we can assume no team was willing to match that, given the parameters outlined above.
It’s the right thing to do
That may sound like a soft reason, which is why it’s listed last, but the Vikings clearly value keeping a positive relationship with players and agents. Sam Darnold surprised the Vikings with an excellent season in a year the team was expecting to pivot to their first-round rookie. While the team may not want to keep Darnold long-term, they respect that his performance helped them to a shocking 14-3 season.
Allowing Darnold to leave under his own terms continues a line of goodwill that Minnesota’s front office has bought in contract negotiations over the years. They navigated Danielle Hunter‘s tricky situation in 2023, Kirk Cousins‘ one-year extension and eventual free agency, and the option they’ve given Harrison Smith surrounding retirement this offseason.
The Vikings have used their history of good faith in negotiations to get important deals done, including market extensions with no drama for Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw. Contrast Jefferson, who never sat out of training camp and signed a contract extension in June of 2024, to Ja’Marr Chase‘s situation with the Bengals last year, where he held in the entire time.
Minnesota’s history has also allowed them to extend negotiating windows for Aaron Jones and Byron Murphy, who agreed to push their void dates back to allow more time for an extension. That doesn’t happen if the players and agents dislike how the team negotiates.
All of Minnesota’s actions have contributed to the franchise ranking second in the NFLPA’s report card. These actions will help the Vikings continue to have great free-agency classes, like in 2024, and successful extensions moving forward.
