Would this be a surprise to you?
The window for the Minnesota Vikings, and the 31 NFL teams who are not as important as the Minnesota Vikings, to designate franchise or transition players will open in about 24 hours. A lot of the talk about the Vikings potentially using their franchise tag has centered around quarterback Sam Darnold, another possibility has emerged.
Kevin Seifert of ESPN is reporting that while the Vikings could use the tag on Darnold, it seems much more likely that they would use it on cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. instead.
Using the tag on quarterback Sam Darnold would be an expensive way of ensuring his return while avoiding a longer-term commitment that would hinder J.J. McCarthy’s eventual ascension. It could also be a way to elicit additional value by way of a trade, but that would require a knowledge that multiple teams would be willing to bid. In the end, the Vikings seem more likely to let Darnold sign elsewhere and preserve their tag for a player such as cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., who had a career-high six interceptions in 2024 and is hitting his prime at age 27. If nothing else, it would give the Vikings time to sign Murphy to a longer-term deal while keeping him off the market.
Using the franchise tag on Murphy would cost about half of what it would be to put the tag on Darnold, as the tag amount figures to be approximately $41 million for quarterbacks versus $20 million for cornerbacks. Murphy was the best cornerback on the roster this past season, collecting six interceptions and earning his first-ever Pro Bowl selection. As Seifert says, he’s still in his prime years, so letting him go would likely result in a significant step back for the Minnesota secondary.
While the window for franchise and transition tags opens on Tuesday, the team will have two weeks to ultimately make a decision on whether to use the tag or not. They could work something out with Murphy between now and then, which would allow them to potentially tag another player or to just not use it at all.
