For 2019, the Minnesota Vikings have a number of notable contributors from last season that are scheduled to become free-agents. Since the Vikings currently do not have a lot of cap space, the belief is that the team likely won’t be able to retain some of their best players from 2018 like linebacker Anthony Barr and defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson.
One way Minnesota could have made sure Barr or Richardson remained on their roster for next season would have been to use the franchise or transition tag on either of them. But the Vikings couldn’t really afford to do that, so no such move was made by the team before the deadline to tag players came and went on Tuesday at 4 p.