The Minnesota Vikings passed on using their franchise tag on starting quarterback Sam Darnold prior to Tuesday’s deadline. While not all that surprising given the $40.2 million fully-guaranteed price tag, the move pushed J.J. McCarthy one step closer to entering the offseason as QB1 of the Vikings.
The Vikings are reportedly still pursuing Darnold on another short-term deal, and if that comes to fruition, how that deal is constructed is top of mind for Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.
If the Vikings sign Darnold to a new multi-year deal, essentially tying him to the team through at least the 2026 season, Florio predicts that McCarthy will request a trade from the team that moved up to draft him No. 10 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Here was Florio’s take on Darnold’s next contract during a recent radio spot with KFAN’s Paul Allen:
Two years becomes the magic number, magic in a bad way, from J.J. McCarthy’s perspective. Because if they make a two-year commitment to Sam Darnold, I predict J.J. McCarthy’s going to ask to be traded — and maybe that’s what the Vikings would want to do. Before the wheels came off in Week 18 for Darnold, before the chariot went back into a pumpkin, the thinking was, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we’ve stumbled into plutonium on accident with Sam Darnold.’ So J.J. McCarthy’s better than any of the quarterbacks in this year’s class; you could get a top-five pick for him and get some stud player at another position of need. Win-win. Sorry, J.J., stuff happens and you’re getting a fresh start somewhere else. If they try to do an Aaron Rodgers-Jordan Love sit three years handoff McCarthy, McCarthy’s not going to be on board with it, I believe. That’s going to be a problem.
Now, while Florio talks to folks around the league and tends to have informed opinions, he was careful to label this as a prediction. This is purely conjecture, and McCarthy hasn’t made any public demands to be the starting quarterback in 2025 or in any specific timeframe.
McCarthy has, however, stated his desire to have a fair opportunity to win the starting job in training camp this season, so it’s reasonable to expect some unhappiness if the team commits to Darnold financially.
Based on everything that’s transpired since the end of the 2024 sesason, it’s highly unlikely that the Vikings and Darnold’s camp are anywhere close on a potential multi-year deal. The franchise tag could have been used as a tool to extend the negotiating window if the two sides were remotely close. Now, per NFL draft analyst Thor Nystrom, Darnold’s set to gauge his market value next week, with a potential return to Minnesota possible on a more team-friendly, one-year deal in the neighborhood of $20 million to $25 million.
The most likely course? Darnold hits the open market and lands a multi-year deal with a quarterback-needy team like the Titans, Giants or Raiders. In the case he does return to Minnesota on some sort of new bridge deal, Darnold vs. McCarthy will be must-see TV this August.
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