The New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings both landed a quarterback in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday, but before that happened, it seems that both teams tried to make a 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. 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. According to ESPN, the Chargers immediately shot down the trade talks with a "flat no."
Of course, even if the Chargers wanted to trade Herbert, it would have been almost impossible. The quarterback just signed a five-year, $262.5 million contract in July 2023, and if the Chargers had traded him at any point before the draft, they would have taken on a $63.5 million dead cap hit.
Although the Patriots and Vikings both came up empty on Herbert, both teams did come away with their quarterback of the future during the first round of the draft. On the Patriots' end, they landed North Carolina's Drake Maye with the third overall pick in the draft. As for the Vikings, they ended up making a small trade with the Jets that allowed them to move from 11th overall to 10th overall where they were able to nab Michigan's J.J. McCarthy.
And let's not forget about the Chargers. They held the fifth overall pick in the draft and they used it to bring in more protection for Herbert in the form of Notre Dame left tackle Joe Alt. There was some speculation that the Chargers might use their first pick on a wide receiver following the losses of Mike Williams (who was released) and Keenan Allen (traded to the Bears), but instead, they decided to fortify the offensive line.
