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 will likely let their starting quarterback set the 

The Vikings passed on the opportunity to place the franchise tag on Sam Darnold before the league's deadline on Tuesday, maximizing their options for bolstering the roster and potentially making the first-time Pro Bowl pick available to every team when free agency opens next week.

Sound familiar? Though some of the circumstances varied, the Vikings essentially did the same a year ago in declining to re-sign Kirk Cousins.

The franchise tag is a lever a team can use each offseason to keep a key player on an expiring contract from leaving while buying time for further evaluation of a long-term deal, but that one-year arrangement comes at a steep fixed price based on the top salaries at that position group. For Darnold, that would've been between $35 million and $41 million for 2025, depending on the type of tag. Applying the tag and trying to execute a trade would have been a risky route for the Vikings, too, considering the probable desire of an acquiring team to get a longer-term deal done.

With the Vikings eyeing several areas for upgrades 

 and already developing a prized young quarterback in J.J. McCarthy, the salary cap space protected by their decision to let Darnold hit the market will go a long way toward their attempt to restock for another run at that elusive Super Bowl.

This doesn't mean Darnold is gone for sure, given his success under 

AP Coach of the Year award winner Kevin O'Connell

 worth more than a higher salary elsewhere, but like Cousins a year ago it would have to be at a price that still allows the Vikings to enhance other positions. When the Atlanta Falcons guaranteed $90 million for Cousins over his first two seasons, they were out.

With roughly 20 percent of the league lacking a clear starting quarterback this spring and a much thinner draft class than the 2024 group that featured six first-round picks, Darnold at age 27 coming off a career-best performance is bound to get a big-money deal. The Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee Titans and New York Giants are three teams in particular in need of a quarterback with ample salary cap space.

The Vikings have been busy weighing if it's worth banking on continued progression by Darnold in a second season under O'Connell while McCarthy gets another to watch and learn after spending his rookie year on injured reserve in recovery from a torn meniscus in his right knee.

Darnold's breakout season was dampened by his performance against a heavy pass rush in losses to the Detroit Lions for the No. 1 seed in the NFC and to the Los Angeles Rams 

. The longer the Vikings keep a veteran quarterback at starter-level salary, too, the less they can benefit from McCarthy being on a rookie-level contract. The Vikings would also be in line for a compensatory draft pick in 2026 if Darnold were to sign elsewhere this year.

“I’ve had great dialogue with Sam from the time this season ended up until very recently, and I think my relationship with Sam has grown to a point where the respect level is sky high,” O’Connell said last week at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. “Sam is in a position where the NFL thinks he can play quarterback at a high level, so that’s a really good thing and I feel very proud to be a part of helping him get to this point. We’ll see kind of where it goes from here.”

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The Minnesota Vikings will likely let their starting quarterback set the NFL free agent market for the second straight offseason.

Darnold pointed toward free agency after Vikings pass on franchise tag with McCarthy waiting

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