Poor Sam Darnold. The underdog quarterback was so close to completing a redemption arc for ages before it all came crashing down in the most brutal two-game stretch you’ll ever see. Darnold watched his Minnesota Vikings battle for first place in the NFC in the season finale before being mauled by the Detroit Lions. Then, a week later, Darnold collapsed under playoff pressure in a historic loss at the hands of the LA Rams.
The Vikings now face a pretty tough question. Do they believe Darnold is the quarterback who led them to a 14-3 record and made them look like a Super Bowl contender at times this season? Or do they view him as a merely adequate QB who isn’t capable of winning the big game (any big game).
Hall of Fame passer Kurt Warner weighed on the subject. “If you feel like you’ve had enough of JJ McCarthy, you move on, but if you’re not sure, I think it’s hard to let a guy who’s been so successful walk out of the building,” he said. said Warner about Darnold according to the Dan Patrick Show on X.
Darnold got his opportunity with the Vikings when McCarthy suffered a season-ending injury during the preseason. The seventh-year veteran easily put up the best numbers of his career, completing 66.2 percent of his passes for 4,319 yards with 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Should the Vikings keep Sam Darnold?
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Everything was going well until the pressure mounted and Darold melted. He took an incredible nine sacks against the Rams in the Wild Card round, essentially eliminating any chance the Vikings had of advancing to the division game.
At one point, it appeared that Darnold would have an enthusiastic free agency market and could easily land a long-term deal worth around $150 million. But after his two dry games, he is now expected to earn money similar to middle-of-the-pack passers like Geno Smith or Baker Mayfield.
The Vikings could franchise Darnold as an insurance policy for McCarthy, just in case the young QB isn’t fully healthy at the start of the 2025 season or proves he’s not ready to start. While that would net Darnold about $40 million for one season, that doesn’t compare at all to the generational wealth he was about to achieve.
It will be interesting to see how the Vikings handle the quarterback situation this offseason. At this point, Minnesota knows better than any other franchise what it has in Darnold. Either way, Darnold should start somewhere next season. But he may never recover from the two-game skid that cost him the sack.
