Pro Football Weekly’s Arthur Arkush recently gave his thoughts on the Minnesota Vikings possibly using the franchise tag on a quarterback this year.
Of the three quarterbacks that took a snap for the Minnesota Vikings last season (Case Keenum, Sam Bradford, and Teddy Bridgewater), two of them have a good chance at returning to the team in 2018 (Keenum and Bridgewater). How that actually ends up happening is a whole separate story.
Since Minnesota is projected to have around $50 million in cap space this offseason (if not more), the team does have the ability to use the franchise tag on one of the quarterbacks this year and still have some money leftover to spend on other free-agents. The projected value of the franchise tag if used on a quarterback this offseason is expected to be almost $24 million.
That amount should eliminate the Vikings from tagging Bridgewater, as his future health is still a question mark. As for Keenum, it doesn’t look like Minnesota will use the franchise tag on him either.
At least according to Pro Football Weekly’s Arthur Arkush on Wednesday.
My understanding is #Vikings won’t be using the tag on any of their FA quarterbacks. We’ll see though. https://t.co/SgJZiE025n
— Arthur Arkush (@ArthurArkush) February 14, 2018
Arkush also covers the NFC North for USA TODAY Sports Weekly, so he is quite familiar with the Vikings and their current situation. But for now, this piece of info should be taken as nothing more than a rumor.
If it turns out to be true though, it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. Minnesota would be crazy to franchise tag Bradford or Bridgewater and placing it on Keenum is also quite the risk.
Keenum and his agent may think he’s worth the $24 million amount the franchise tag would give him. But the Vikings may believe that the quarterback isn’t even worth a yearly salary of $20 million.
Next: 5 players on the Vikings' free-agent wish list
Minnesota using the franchise tag this offseason could potentially lead to the team being in a similar situation with their quarterbacks in 2019 as well. And that possible scenario alone should be enough to discourage the Vikings from using the tag this year.