League Insider: “The Vikings Want Darnold Back”
No shortage of attention is going to go towards this topic in the coming weeks and months.
Sam Darnold is having a magnificent season in Minnesota, the kind of year that not only puts him in contention for Comeback Player of the Year (read more) but also MVP. The passer has led the Vikings to a pristine 14-2 record. He has done so behind a 68.1% completion rate, 4,153 passing yards, 35 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
Sensibly, people want to know how Minnesota is going to proceed at the game’s most important position. After all, J.J. McCarthy is the highest-picked passer in franchise history and someone whom inspires a lot of belief in Minnesota. Does it make sense to move on from the ultra productive Darnold in favor of McCarthy?
On The Athletic, Dianna Russini weighed-in on the situation. Her understanding of the situation is relatively straightforward: “They spent a first-round pick on J.J. McCarthy last spring and Darnold is in for a big payday in March. Despite that, after conversations with a team source, one thing is clear: The Vikings want Darnold back in Minnesota for 2025.”
The Vikings, Sam Darnold, and The 2025 Season
In Week 17, Sam Darnold was dazzling.
The quarterback regularly eluded pressure in the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield as he stayed in attack mode. For a while now, he has looked poised and confident in the O’Connell offense. One almost thinks that he has finally figured out how to use all of his weapons — Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Jalen Nailor, T.J. Hockenson, and Aaron Jones — after all of these weeks.
The end result in Green Bay was yet another victory and yet another impressive set of stats. Darnold went 33/43 for 377 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 1 interception. His passer rating was sitting at 116.1.
The season-long excellence has prompted Minnesota to reevaluate how they’re understanding the quarterback position. Or, at least, to being very amenable re-welcoming Darnold into the mix.
Kick it over to Russini: “While the original plan was for McCarthy to slowly develop into the starting quarterback while Darnold was there to hold the rookie’s place, McCarthy’s injury changed things. Now, the Vikings have a problem — Darnold has been almost too good (not in a bad way, but in a ‘this is now complicated’ way). McCarthy hasn’t played since August, and realistically he won’t be fully in the mix until spring at the earliest. He’s around the building and with the team constantly but he hasn’t been medically cleared.”
She goes on: “So, what’s the move? One option on the table: the franchise tag. It’s pricey (more than $40 million) but it buys time. It would give McCarthy another year to develop from the bench, or at least set up a real competition. (There’s nothing wrong with McCarthy sitting — think about what the Packers did with Jordan Love.) And it would give the Vikings a chance to do a shorter-term deal that’s more cap-friendly, yet also gives Darnold similar money to what he’d get on the open market.”
At this stage, nothing is set in stone for the Vikings. The Week 18 game awaits and that’s what’s occupying the attention inside TCO Performance Center. Snag a victory over the Lions and finish the season as the NFC’s top team with a 15-2 record.
At worst, the Vikings will get into the final tournament as a Wild Card team, the kind of foe that absolutely no one wants to see on the schedule. Legitimately, these Vikings could go on a deep playoff run, in no small part due to the excellence that Darnold is providing from under center.
Enjoy these days, folks. Enjoy the simple fact that Sam Darnold has taken expectations and blown them to smithereens, eviscerated them, made them go kaboom. The end result is super meaningful football and an actual chance to do something special as the season marches toward its conclusion.
In 2025, the Vikings will then make a decision at quarterback. The word from Russini is that there’s interest in keeping Darnold around, so we’ll see how things shake out.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
Looks Like the Vikings Will be Shorthanded on Defense as they Try to Secure the NFC in Week 18
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.