Pelissero: Most Logical is Darnold Staying in Minn

medaille wrote:

Nobody was signing Jones midseason to be their starter.  Nobody has starter money tucked away to drop on a midseason change at starting QB.  What he did at the end of this past season and what he'll do going forward are completely different things.  Everyone was offering him around the same amount of money.

The Vikings will have a hard time offering him one year $10M if someone is offering him 3 years, $60M, but maybe he thinks he'll be able to flip it into a 3 years $100M by waiting a year?

The Raiders and 49ers when Purdy went down. He could have played right away last season is what I am saying. He chose not to and came here to play under KOC.

Justin Jefferson said he wanted Kirk back too and the Vikings moved on. I think JJ is just trying to support the current starting QB... we'll see what happens.

StickierBuns wrote:
Very interesting quote here from Jefferson:

The Purple Persuasion
@TPPSkol
·
1h
Justin Jefferson seems to make the plea that he wants Sam Darnold back and even says “I feel like we’re gonna bring Sam back”.
Jefferson does note @Vikings rookie QB J.J. McCarthy will get “his shot” at some point because he’s a 1st-round pick.

JMO, I don't think Jefferson would say this unless he was privy to some internal insight.

One interesting thing brought up by the cap expert I posted in another thread is that "technically" NFL teams are not supposed to tag players they don't intend to sign long term. But that it happens all the time and it's never enforced. Happened last year with the Chiefs CB Sneed. It also happened with Matt Cassell when the Pats tagged him and traded him to the Chiefs for a 2nd round pick years ago. 

So I think this could just be the Vikings saying the things they're supposed to: "We want Sam back. We're going to tag him and we look forward to another great season with Sam as our QB. But oh by the way, if you're really desperate for a QB, what are willing to do to change our minds?" 

There was 23 days between the Cassell tag and the trade. 25 days between the Sneed tag and the trade. That's a good amount of time to let the seed germinate.

StickierBuns wrote:
Very interesting quote here from Jefferson:

The Purple Persuasion
@TPPSkol
·
1h
Justin Jefferson seems to make the plea that he wants Sam Darnold back and even says “I feel like we’re gonna bring Sam back”.
Jefferson does note @Vikings rookie QB J.J. McCarthy will get “his shot” at some point because he’s a 1st-round pick.

JMO, I don't think Jefferson would say this unless he was privy to some internal insight.

He was Kirks number one fan as well. Went as far as to say, he doesn't want to play with anyone else. I don't take this as much of anything. 

You said something that caught my attention however, you said he was privy to some internal insight... Of course he is, he is Justin Jefferson. Let me ask you this, does the NFL listen if a player like Ed Ingram comes out and says something? No, teams won't even open the article. If Justin Jefferson, the best WR in the NFL, says something, I am going to guess that gets sent to people's phones and texts are sent out to GM and coaches, because Jets said something, and the NFL wants to know what he said. If Jefferson says something of this magnitude, does that raise or lower the trade value of teams that may be interested in wanting him? Will that make interested teams more or less eager to get him? If Jefferson says that... teams will be more eager to find a way to get Darnold. Not because teams will think Darnold is that great, but because now you think the chances are going down for the Vikings to let him go. It's like you try and get your 4 year old kid to eat his dinner and he refuses, you take it away and say nope, you don't get to eat now! You will watch that 4 year old eat his dinner and is happy about it.

StickierBuns wrote:
Very interesting quote here from Jefferson:

The Purple Persuasion
@TPPSkol
·
1h
Justin Jefferson seems to make the plea that he wants Sam Darnold back and even says “I feel like we’re gonna bring Sam back”.
Jefferson does note @Vikings rookie QB J.J. McCarthy will get “his shot” at some point because he’s a 1st-round pick.

JMO, I don't think Jefferson would say this unless he was privy to some internal insight.

Are you suggesting that Jets is leaking the Vikings plans?  How long do you think it will take before they take away his social media accounts?

I dont read much into what JJ is saying...I hear it as he's just speaking his mind vs any inside info being leaked.

I'd love to see the Vikings try the tag/trade, but we'll just have to wait and see if the mkt develops for it.

medaille wrote:

Are you suggesting that Jets is leaking the Vikings plans?  How long do you think it will take before they take away his social media accounts?

If he's leaking stuff it's probably at the front office's behest. "Help position us to trade Sam by saying you think we're keeping him."

comet52 wrote:

If he's leaking stuff it's probably at the front office's behest.  "Help position us to trade Sam by saying you think we're keeping him."

Yeah, I think that's very possible. It's in the Vikings' best interest to say all the right things about Sam. If the Vikings want to tag and trade him for anything worthwhile, they have to convince teams who may want to trade for him that there is a real chance we'll just keep him...unless you give us an offer we can't refuse. IOW, the Vikings are manufacturing leverage. At least that's what it sounds like to me.

comet52 wrote:

If he's leaking stuff it's probably at the front office's behest.  "Help position us to trade Sam by saying you think we're keeping him."

I tend to agree with this.

MaroonBells wrote:

Yeah, I think that's very possible. It's in the Vikings' best interest to say all the right things about Sam. If the Vikings want to tag and trade him for anything worthwhile, they have to convince teams who may want to trade for him that there is a real chance we'll just keep him...unless you give us an offer we can't refuse. IOW, the Vikings are manufacturing leverage. At least that's what it sounds like to me.

I agree, I said this as well but, in more detail, earlier in this thread

ArizonaViking wrote:
Just me...I say franchise him, trade him and get the draft picks while they're hot.

I agree with this.
I'm all in with JJM and either Danny Jones or Nick Mullens as #2.
Someone desperate (there's 3-5 franchises that fit that description) will take the trade and sign him to a 3-4 year deal.
Good for Sam.
Good for us.

KOC came right out & said Sam earned the right to hit free agency, it’s time for the JJ McCarthy era to begin & I’m looking forward to it. Build the interior lines & watch this team grow! SKOL  :exclamation:

This KOC quote is imo another example of the team saying "So long Sam":

"I believe Sam has kind of played himself into being kind of the marquee free agent quarterback available," O'Connell said. "I do believe that his teammates and coaches and our front office and myself, we would love to have Sam back in Minnesota. But at the same time we do feel very confident in J.J. McCarthy. He's healthy. We drafted him 10th overall for a reason in what was, in my opinion, a historically good quarterback draft last year."

StickierBuns wrote:
According to KOC, Sam is great....JJM is great.....Danny Dimes is great. He's the King of CoachSpeak. The cool thing is we'll know by April 1st how things will shake out.

He sure is...

Take a couple week breather after the SB and bam, its FA b4 u know it.

The NFL may be the best run big biz in the US

It's just funny. KOC did a number of interviews last week and every god damn Viking fan on the planet has interpreted each to mean something different--mostly, what it is they want to hear. He's really said nothing at all.

MaroonBells wrote:
It's just funny. KOC did a number of interviews last week and every god damn Viking fan on the planet has interpreted each to mean something different--mostly, what it is they want to hear. He's really said nothing at all.

He actually said the decision regarding QB has not been made yet. That's the only thing I heard. The rest was coach speak.
Tea leaves seem easy to read though!
Fans hear what fits their agenda I guess. The reporter for the Detroit free press could work for heavy.com, he's either an idiot or clickbait artist; probably both. Reading is fundamental, comprehension evidently isn't!

StickierBuns wrote:

....which is true because nothing has happened yet and won't for a bit. So in essence he isn't lying, but lets not act like they are throwing darts because they don't know what they want to do. They know and they have a plan. No matter what any 'insiders' say in the national media, nobody knows anything yet. And real info won't leak out until probably the very beginning of March. IMO, I think they are just going to let Sam walk, sign Danny Dimes and have a 'competition' with McCarthy for the starting job. Or maybe not even that, KOC will just say we're riding with JJM and Dimes is the back up. I think that is Plan A. But the best laid plans don't always work exactly how you want, so we'll see. One year at KOC University for Dimes is going to make him a decent commodity come Spring 2026 and he'll only be 28 years old.

This is the way I see it distilled to one point: you drafted a QB top 10 and moved up to get him. You're going to let him sit ANOTHER year before you see what you've got? And waste another year of that rookie contract? I'm wondering who that makes any sense to.

The Aaron Rodgers to Minnesota rumors are heating up now, lol. Silly aka Stupid Season is officially open.

Things I think we know pretty solidly.
• They’re not going to tag Darnold. They’ll let him test the FA market. KOC said Darnold deserved to see what he’s worth on the market. I strongly doubt they would tag him against his will after saying that outloud.
• Everything else is still on the table.

What is most likely happening.
• We have a contract offer on the table, for some number that is probably much lower than the market will provide, but is what we would happily take him back at. It’s probably also been said that he’ll be competing with JJM and the best QB will start.
• Darnold won’t sign that or reject it until until testing the market which won’t happen officially for another month. They’ll probably know earlier than that due to tampering, but no one will be able to say it outloud, but we might hear rumors.
• Darnold still might sign it, but probably not. He’ll get a life changing offer from somewhere else.
• 10 minutes after tampering period opens, they’ll announce what team he’s signing with.
• Basically the same thing that happened with Cousins
• In the meantime, they'll be working on a backup plan for JJM as a starter and will have those offers at the ready/sufficiently tampered.