The Vikings aren’t likely to franchise tag Sam Darnold, but the team may still like to keep the quarterback around.
Tuesday at 4 p.m. EST marks the NFL ᴅᴇᴀᴅline to use the franchise tag on players, and ESPN reported Monday night that Minnesota was unlikely to go that route with the former first-round draft pick.
However, that doesn’t mean his time with the Vikings is over necessarily, either.
The Vikings are still interested in trying to re-sign Darnold, just without exercising the franchise tag which would have given them until July 15 to work out a long-term extension, the report indicated.
The franchise tag salary for quarterbacks is projected to be around $40.2 million.
Darnold had a breakout season in 2024.
He led the Vikings to 14 wins while throwing for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns on the way to his first Pro Bowl nod.
The QB’s Cinderella story came to an end when he struggled in the season finale against the Lions, which decided the NFC North champion and then struggled in a playoff loss to the Rams.
Darnold gave very little insight into his thinking after the season ended and in late January during an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, he said “I’m not going to share anything about what I’ve been thinking.”
“There’s obviously, a lot that’s going to happen still, even after the Super Bowl. So [I’m] just going to continue to talk to my agent and figure things out from there,” he said.
Darnold arrived in Minnesota on a one-year contract and had a strong training camp.
An injury to first-round pick J.J. McCarthy during the preseason essentially solidified Darnold’s status as a starter for the Vikings last season.
“We just took it one day at a time,” Darnold told Newsweek in February about his success in 2024. “For me, just trust in the work that we put in throughout the season, we put in the offseason to put ourselves in a great position and that’s pretty much it. Trust in the work and trust in our process.”
