Anthony Harris may have been the best security in football in 2019, and to make sure he stays in the fold, the Minnesota Vikings have put the franchise label on him rather than allowing him to hit an agency free without restriction. He signed the tag less than a week before the 2020 NFL draft, but that didn’t stop at least one team from trying to trade in purple to acquire their services.
Interesting note on Harris: The #Giants and #Vikings had discussions about a possible exchange after the Harris tagging, sources and these two cats told me below. The Vikings liked Harris and didn’t tag him just to betray him, so the deal didn’t come to fruition. https://t.co/5gPyRBjIiw
– Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) July 15, 2020
According to Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network, the New York Giants made openings to the Vikings for Harris before the draft, but the Vikings apparently did not want, in Garafolo’s words, “to betray him”. Thus, no agreement has materialized between the two teams and Harris remains with the Vikings, where he will play the 2020 season under the tag.
The Giants filled their safety need during the 2020 NFL draft by taking Alabama star Xavier McKinney, projected as a potential first round, in the second round of the selection meeting.
I don’t know what type of compensation the Vikings and Giants could have spoken for Harris, but given the verbiage that Garafolo used in his tweet, it doesn’t look like it was going to be substantial. In this case, it’s probably a good thing that Rick Spielman and the company didn’t pull the trigger on an exchange just to remove Harris’ $ 11.4 million franchise label from their books.
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