No Tag-and-Trade for Sam Darnold? Here’s Why.
Tuesday’s deadline for the NFL’s franchise tag came and went with no such maneuver used on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold.
Why No Tag-and-Trade for Sam Darnold? Here’s Why.
Some fans, podcasters, and aggregators absolutely insisted — for weeks — that Darnold would command a stout trade market despite Darnold’s utter collapse down the stretch of the 2024 season.
In the end, those trade theories were best-laid plans from eager onlookers, never very realistic in the first place, and an example of folks hoping and pleading to speak something into existence. And thanks to NFL player agent Blake Baratz on Tuesday, some clarity was learned about why Darnold was not tagged-and-traded.
For starters, SKOR North‘s Phil Mackey expressed total befuddlement about the Vikings opting not to tag Darnold and chided the organization along the way: “If Sam Darnold signs a 3-year, $120 million deal with, say, the Raiders… the Vikings massively misgauged his tag and trade value. If he signs for far less, you all can clown me for how wrong I’ve been.”
Baratz, who has tangible experience with player contracts, unlike Mackey, found the tweet and explained: “That isn’t true. When you tag him, the entire $41M counts against the cap. You cannot use that to sign other players. In addition, he controls the cards of where he goes.”
“In addition, every team knows they have zero intention or desire to have him play on the tag, so you actually lose trade value. The comp pick next year can very well exceed the trade value. We are talking about maybe 2-3 trade partners. It is actually a substantial risk.”
So, three items wholly disregarded by the pro-trade-Darnold crowd for weeks are at play here. Foremost, had the Vikings applied the tag onto Darnold, they would immediately zap their free-agent budget from $63 million to $22 million, a major disruption to the offseason plan.
Then, Darnold effectively had a no-trade clause at his disposal. For example, had the Vikings tag-and-traded Darnold to a team like the Raiders, he could tell Las Vegas, “There’s no way in hell I’m playing there,” which would cancel the trade before it occurred.
Finally, folks bombastically exaggerated Darnold’s trade value. Teams weren’t sprinting to general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s phone line to offer juicy draft picks. Per Baratz, the compensatory draft pick that will probably be obtained from Darnold’s free-agent exodus will be more valuable than any trade offer tossed in Adofo-Mensah’s direction.
The lesson? Just because a faction of media and fans wants something to happen so badly — like a fun draft pick trade for a quarterback who vaporized when it mattered the most — doesn’t mean the outcome is even remotely realistic.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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