Barring a last-minute deal, he’ll hit free agency
The deadlines for NFL teams to place the franchise or transition tags on pending free agents has just passed, and we now appear to have the answer to the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback question.
The Vikings elected not to tag quarterback Sam Darnold, a move that could have guaranteed him a $40 million salary in 2025. Barring a last-minute deal sometime before Monday, Darnold will hit free agency completely unencumbered and be able to sign anywhere he wants.
There had been some rumblings late last week from the Scouting Combine that the Vikings could potentially tag Darnold as part of a deal to trade him to a quarterback-needy team, but apparently the market for Darnold’s services hasn’t materialized to the point where Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and company felt comfortable doing that. Had they tagged Darnold and not been able to trade him, that $40 million price tag would have eaten up around two-thirds of their available cap space going into free agency.
This move signals that this will be J.J. McCarthy’s team for the 2025 season and beyond. The Vikings could also choose to retain former Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who they brought in towards the end of last season, as a veteran mentor and/or potential bridge quarterback if McCarthy isn’t totally ready to go. All indications to this point is that McCarthy is aiming to be ready for mini-camps after the Draft, so hopefully that won’t be a concern.
It will be interesting to see how the market for Darnold develops. The quarterback class in this year’s draft appears to be a pretty weak one, and there are numerous teams out there that are still searching for an answer at quarterback. Darnold likely won’t last long on the free agent market, as he’s clearly the best available player at the position. The Vikings could, potentially, bring Darnold back if they can agree on a deal between now and the start of free agency, but that seems to be pretty unlikely as things stand at the moment.
The “legal tampering” period of NFL free agency gets underway at 11:00 AM Central on Monday morning, and now Vikings fans can look forward to free agency knowing that the quarterback question appears to have been answered.
