An hour into the NFL draft, a rumor of the Minnesota Vikings inquiring about Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert surfaced that general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has since pushed back on.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported roughly 45 minutes into the draft broadcast that “in recent weeks, both the Patriots and Vikings reached out to the Chargers to see if they had any interest in trading QB Justin Herbert, per league sources.”
“The answer was, very quickly, ‘a flat no’,” Schefter wrote.
Adofo-Mensah addressed the rumor in his post-Day 1 news conference after the Vikings landed Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy 10th overall and Alabama edge rusher Dallas Turner at No. 17.
“I wish I could tell you how much joy we get from seeing the stuff that gets written,” Adofo-Mensah said of the rumor on April 25. “These aren’t things that ever come out of this building, man. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know where this stuff comes from. Sometimes it works out in our favor, but — I can’t even respond (to that).”
Justin Herbert Does Not Fit Vikings’ Timeline
GettyGeneral manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah of the Minnesota Vikings.
While acquiring Herbert would solve the Vikings’ quarterback questions for the next 10 years, they’d run up against the same dilemma that led the team to part ways with Kirk Cousins.
Herbert’s five-year, $262.5 million contract carries massive annual cap hits that the Vikings cannot support with their current roster.
Adofo-Mensah has ushered the Vikings out of the Rick Spielman era that saw the league’s No. 1-ranked defense from 2017 atrophy over the years.
The Vikings have difference-makers at several key positions but still need reinforcements that they cannot wait to develop. The Vikings instead are opting to capitalize on the benefits of a rookie-scale contract and sign priority free agents to accelerate the team’s rebuild.
Herbert’s contract is structured to be team-friendly for the next three seasons with an average yearly cap hit of $34.3 million from 2024 to 2026 before an extension or restructure would be required to level out the final three-year, $63 million average cap hit for the remainder of the deal.
However, the Vikings have keystone players at premier positions they should extend in the next three seasons like Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw. Having a quarterback on a rookie contract helps maintain flexibility in balancing the books over the years.
Vikings Rookie J.J. McCarthy’s Projected Contract
GettyFormer Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy.
The Vikings’ selection of McCarthy marks the first time in franchise history the team has taken a quarterback inside the top 10 picks of the draft.
The hype on this year’s quarterback class was real with six quarterbacks taken in the first 12 picks of the draft — matching the record-setting 1983 draft class.
It also blew away the 1983 draft class with the fewest picks for six quarterbacks to fall off the board. The 1983 class saw the sixth and final first-round quarterback taken No. 27 overall.
All of this to say is that while McCarthy did fall outside of the pre-draft hype that saw him a favorite to be selected in the top-five picks, the Vikings seemingly got a discount for him at No. 10 overall. They also used their other first-rounder and did not have to give up a future first.
McCarthy’s four-year rookie deal is worth up to $21.8 million, per Spotrac. His cap hits will be part of the remaining negotiations of his contract.
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