The Minnesota Vikings have 25 impending free agents this offseason and will need to make decisions on whether they want to retain them or not. One way the Vikings could bring players in is to franchise tag them, and on Monday, the NFL released the amounts of what it would cost to franchise tag each position.
The franchise tag is essentially a way for NFL teams to retain an impending free agent, and teams can only apply the tag once per offseason. The tag is a one-year guaranteed contract, and the salary is determined based on the average of the top five players in that position.
QB: $32,416,000
RB: $10,091,000
WR: $19,743,000
TE: $11,345,000
OL: $18,244,000
DE: $19,727,000
DT: $18,937,000
LB: $20,926,000
CB: $18,140,000
S: $14,460,000
K: $5,393,000
P: $5,393,000
The Vikings are unlikely to utilize the franchise tag this offseason, as many of their impending free agents’ next contracts are expected to be below the values listed above. The Vikings have only used the franchise tag three times in their history: tight end Jim Kleinsasser (2003), linebacker Chad Greenway (2011) and safety Anthony Harris (2020).
