You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
The New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings both were able to land a quarterback in the first round of 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday with the Patriots taking Drake Maye with the No. 3 overall pick and the Vikings landing J.J. McCarthy with the 10th overall pick.
But before that happened, both teams tried to pull off a blockbuster trade for Justin Herbert.
At some point over the past few weeks, both the Patriots and Vikings called the Los Angeles Chargers to see if they’d be interested in trading Herbert away, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
With Jim Harbaugh going into his first year with Chargers, the Vikings and Patriots may have been hoping that he would be willing to part ways with Herbert so he could start over with his own quarterback, but that wasn’t the case. The Chargers immediately shot down the trade talks with a “flat no.”
It’s important to note that even if the Chargers wanted to trade Herbert, it would be nearly impossible as the quarterback just signed a five-year, $262.5 million contract last July, and if the Chargers traded him at any point before the draft, they would have taken on a $63.5 million dead cap hit.
While the Patriots and Vikings got their quarterback, the Chargers were able to bolster their offensive line, selecting Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt with the No. 5 overall pick.
