Sports has its own language and certainly has a mountain of shorthand within that language. Even those who speak it don't always know what everything means, but they rarely stop to ask for clarification.

It was heartening, then, to receive an email from reader Chris on Thursday morning asking simply and politely: "What does 'put the franchise tag on Darnold' mean? I'm new to all this. Thanks."

I had written earlier in the week about the clarity gained when Kevin O'Connell agreed to a contract extension and had used that exact phrase in explaining why I think 2024 Vikings QB Sam Darnold has at most one year and likely zero left in Minnesota.

If you are new to following the NFL or don't follow it all that closely, it sounds like pure gibberish. But even if you follow it closely … maybe even fervently … perhaps even talk about the Vikings and the NFL, in part, for a living … taking time to explain the concept of a franchise tag in the NFL reveals gaps in your knowledge while also challenging your basic acceptance and assumptions about the very odd contractual mechanism.

A franchise tag, quite simply, is a one-year contract designation a team can place on one unrestricted free agent per year. The team guarantees a salary based on the average of the top-five paid players at that position over the past five years. The player has no choice. If they are tagged, that is their contract.

So for the Vikings with Darnold, they could decide that while they don't want to commit to him with a long-term contract they could use their franchise tag to guarantee he will play for them in 2025 at a salary estimated around $39.5 million.

That would be a nice raise for Darnold, who made $10 million last season, but he would be a free agent again in 2026. He would probably prefer to sign a multiyear contract this offseason coming off his best year, by far, as a pro. But like I said, that's not up to him if the Vikings use the tag.

However: Even if they put the franchise tag on Darnold, they could still negotiate a multiyear contract with him. Or they could still trade him to another team.

As I was preparing for the above podcast segment on the subject, I frantically had to text our Vikings writers. If the Vikings put the franchise tag on Darnold and then trade him, another team can still renegotiate a long-term contract with him, right? A quick reply in the affirmative followed.

Long story short, Chris: If the Vikings "put the franchise tag on Darnold," it means they like him enough to view him as an asset in a trade and/or to have him play here for one more year, but it probably would mean they don't love him enough to sign him long-term (unless they decided to do that later).

Got it?