Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) and Nick Mullens (12) run on the sphere earlier than an NFL soccer matchup Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024 at Everbank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. © Corey Perrine/Florida Occasions-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK by way of Imagn Pictures.
Tuesday’s deadline for the NFL’s franchise tag got here and went with no such maneuver used on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold.
Why No Tag-and-Commerce for Sam Darnold? Right here’s Why.
Some followers, podcasters, and aggregators completely insisted — for weeks — that Darnold would command a stout commerce market regardless of Darnold’s utter collapse down the stretch of the 2024 season.
Matt Krohn-Imagn Pictures.
Ultimately, these commerce theories have been best-laid plans from keen onlookers, by no means very real looking within the first place, and an instance of parents hoping and pleading to talk one thing into existence. And because of NFL participant agent Blake Baratz on Tuesday, some readability was discovered 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 expertise with participant contracts, in contrast to Mackey, discovered the tweet and defined: “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.”
Kirby Lee-Imagn Pictures.
“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 gadgets wholly disregarded by the pro-trade-Darnold crowd for weeks are at play right here. Foremost, had the Vikings utilized the tag onto Darnold, they’d instantly zap their free-agent price range from $63 million to $22 million, a serious disruption to the offseason plan.
Kirby Lee-Imagn Pictures.
Then, Darnold successfully had a no-trade clause at his disposal. For instance, had the Vikings tag-and-traded Darnold to a group just like the Raiders, he might inform Las Vegas, “There’s no way in hell I’m playing there,” which might cancel the commerce earlier than it occurred.
Lastly, people bombastically exaggerated Darnold’s commerce worth. Groups weren’t sprinting to basic supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s cellphone line to supply juicy draft picks. Per Baratz, the compensatory draft decide that can in all probability be obtained from Darnold’s free-agent exodus will likely be extra priceless than any commerce provide tossed in Adofo-Mensah’s path.
The lesson? Simply because a faction of media and followers desires one thing to occur so badly — like a enjoyable draft decide commerce for a quarterback who vaporized when it mattered probably the most — doesn’t imply the result is even remotely real looking.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his each day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The present options company, evaluation, and opinion on all issues associated to the purple group, 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 carefully because the NFL.
All statistics offered by Professional Soccer Reference / Stathead; all contractual info offered by OverTheCap.com.
