Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports activities.
The Minnesota Vikings’ offseason has evidently hit the ultimatum juncture of the calendar, not less than in accordance with one native web site.
A Weird Ultimatum for Kwesi Adofo-Mensah
Minnesota has a number of quarterbacks in its offseason roster orbit, together with J.J. McCarthy, Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, Nick Mullens, and Brett Rypien. And that doesn’t even take into consideration wild rumors involving Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports activities.
However in accordance with MinnesotaSportsFan.com, a web site that covers the Vikings, Timberwolves, Wild, Twins, and Minnesota school actions, Vikings common supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah needs to be fired instantly if he doesn’t apply the franchise tag on Sam Darnold whereas buying and selling him for a 1st-Spherical decide.
“Don’t believe the propaganda we are being sold on Sam Darnold. If the Vikings fail to tag and trade the most prized asset on the FA market for anything less than a 1st round pick, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah should be fired on the spot,” MSF’s Eric Strack wrote Thursday, some 18 days earlier than NFL free company when Darnold will seemingly hit the open market and be part of a brand new membership.
Strack referenced the Cleveland Browns commerce involving Deshaun Watson three years in the past as proof that quarterbacks have a strong market and apparently feels Darnold might need an identical attract to Watson from the 2022 offseason.
The issue? Assuming the Vikings would seize a 1st-Rounder for Darnold this offseason is a logical leap that maybe solely Minnesota Sports activities Fan believes. Darnold carried out magnificently by way of 16 video games of the 2024 common season however later vaporized within the 12 months’s most important video games — on the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams. Each contests circulated on nationwide tv, with your entire world — plus 31 NFL common managers — witnessing Darnold’s pumpkin shapeshift.
If it have been widespread information that Minnesota may extract a 1st-Rounder for Darnold’s companies, MSF is likely to be onto one thing. But, some NFL pundits understand a commerce package deal with Darnold hooked up within the mid- or late-rounds — not verifiably Spherical 1.
“While other teams are desperate for QBs, the Minnesota Vikings are desperate for draft picks, being they only hold only four total picks for the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft; yet another reason why Kwesi Adofo-Mensah should be fired for organizational malpractice if he doesn’t tag Sam Darnold,” Strack concluded.
Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports activities.
Final month, The Athletic‘s Alec Lewis sized up Darnold’s commerce market and wrote: “If the Raiders hire a head coach who could build an intriguing enough infrastructure (say, Ben Johnson, though that ship has sailed), Darnold may be interested. In that situation, the Vikings would have to weigh the value of a late-round pick versus what they could potentially recoup as a compensatory pick.”
If Darnold leaves by way of free company — with no franchise tag-and-trade — he’ll issue into the NFL’s difficult compensatory draft decide components. The Vikings, in idea, may seize a Third-Rounder for his departure.
In that vein, MSF could also be debating itself whether or not Adofo-Mensah ought to receive a mid- to late-rounder by way of commerce or a Third-Rounder by way of compensatory decide.
Minnesota quarterback S. Darnold (14) arms the ball working again Aaron Jones (33) in the course of the first half at Ford Discipline in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. © Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK by way of Imagn Photos.
Fortunately, the franchise tag window will shut in 12 days, and onlookers will obtain readability on the Vikings’ plans.
However let or not it’s identified: some fashionable voices merely imagine Darnold is price a 1st-Spherical draft decide — even when he’s not. Yep, the identical man who invoked a magician’s disappearing act with the Vikings’ season on the road.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his day by day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The present options visitors, evaluation, and opinion on all issues associated to the purple staff, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates again to 1996. Listed responsible pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doorways (the band). He follows the NBA as intently because the NFL.
All statistics offered by Professional Soccer Reference / Stathead; all contractual info offered by OverTheCap.com.
