Breaking: Vikings Agree Deal To Sign $220 Million Pro Bowl QB to Pair With Jefferson
The Minnesota Vikings may need to shift their focus to identifying their future franchise quarterback if their ideal quarterback is selected in the draft because the top three teams in the 2024 NFL Draft have not demonstrated a willingness to trade down. One analyst thinks Tua Tagovailoa is a player worth talking about.
The Miami Dolphins are at a loss for what to do with wide receiver Justin Jefferson as he approaches the fifth year of his rookie contract. Nick Wright of Fox Sports’ “First Things First” advised the Dolphins to call the Vikings and try to make a trade with Minnesota.
“Hey, you know how Minnesota acquired an extra first-round pick’—they have the 11th and the 23rd because they want a quarterback—I would call them and see what they think of Tua Tagovailoa,” Wright stated on March 21. If I were giving advice to the Dolphins, I would tell them that. “You could calm Justin Jefferson’s anxieties and have stability at quarterback.”
The two first-round picks that the Vikings would receive in exchange for a possible Day 2 or Day 3 pick would probably be the main focus of the trade package.
Coming off of his first Pro Bowl season, Tagovailoa, 25, led the Dolphins to an 11-6 record and a postseason appearance by throwing for 4,624 yards and 29 touchdowns.
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa Does Not Fit Vikings’ Timeline
For a quarterback in the Pro Bowl, Tagovailoa’s $23.1 million fifth-year option for the 2024 campaign is a reasonable price, but things are about to get a lot more expensive soon.
If the Dolphins extend Tagovailoa this offseason, Spotrac projects that he will receive a four-year, $220 million contract, or $55 million per season. The following offseason, the price will be much greater.
Kirk Cousins’ departure this summer is proof positive that the Vikings are not in the market to pay a quarterback that sort of money. To put a young quarterback in the best possible position to become the face of their team, they have constructed an offense around the quarterback position that is stacked with Pro Bowl talent.
The Justin Jefferson Scare Tactics Will Remain Until He Signs With Vikings
Being a proven quarterback in the NFL, Tagovailoa would fit well in with the Vikings’ offensive scheme. In an era when the Vikings are searching high and low for the next apparent heir to Cousins, he does provide steadiness.
Wright, however, only needed steadiness to appease Jefferson.
Early in his career, Jefferson was content with his stats, but when opponents started to double- and triple-team him in an attempt to take him out of the game, he demonstrated throughout that winning was his top objective and the numbers came second.
With Cousins, Jefferson had stability, but the Vikings could only go so far under his leadership. Each year, they hoped that every draft selection would be a steal in order to bolster a team lacking the cap room to make big free-agent acquisitions.
Those days are now a long way behind us in this offseason.
The addition of Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Jonathan Greenard gives a tremendous boost to a defense that showed promise in 2023 but collapsed under pressure in the latter weeks because to a lack of depth.
Jefferson is aware that the Vikings organization has a well-defined plan in place. In order to protect himself from injury and to get an extension that may provide him and his family with guaranteed income in excess of $100 million, it is also in his best interest to sign one this summer.
Jefferson’s contract extension is probably not an exception to the Vikings’ practice of giving out large contract extensions in the final days before training camp.
However, until then, rumors and intimidation techniques regarding Jefferson’s prospects and level of satisfaction at quarterback will continue to dominate the news cycle.
