The franchise tag window is officially open for NFL teams, which means they’ll have the chance of administering the tag for at least one pending free agent. Who will it be for the Minnesota Vikings? It has to be someone, right?
Hello! Anyone?
The sound of crickets is emanating out of Eagan right now, and that’ll likely remain the case until NFL free agency.
Of course, the Vikings have franchise tag options with players like linebacker Anthony Barr and cornerback Patrick Peterson. But they’re also a cap-strapped team that doesn’t necessarily have the luxury of pinning an expensive one-year placeholder on a player they’re hoping to keep on their roster.
The cost for keeping Peterson on such a deal is estimated to be at about $17.5 million and $18.5 million to keep Barr. It makes absolutely zero sense from a financial standpoint for the team to pay that sort of money for a player that will be 30-plus years of age heading into the 2022 season.
Newly-hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah isn’t looking to rock the boat with that sort of mistake right out of the gates for the Vikings. He has bigger fish to fry right now with free agency right around the corner and the 2022 NFL Draft rapidly approaching.
The team also has to address the elephant in the room at some point, which is the costly contract of quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Players like Peterson and Barr will have an opportunity to test the market and then potentially come back on a new deal. Peterson admittedly enjoyed his time in Minnesota, and he has already stated his interest in returning.
Meanwhile, when it seemed like Barr had played his final snap for the Vikings, head coach Kevin O’Connell flipped everything on its head by hiring Ed Donatell as the defensive coordinator and changing the overall defensive make-up of the team. The opportunity to play out of a 3-4 base defense would greatly benefit Barr and could potentially put him in a position to have his best season yet as a Viking.
Whether he’s interested in running it back or not remains to be seen.
But the franchise tag needs to remain under lock and key until the Vikings have a real reason to use it. That reason could show itself in 2023 and beyond, but it clearly isn’t manifesting in the 2022 offseason.
