Vikings Coach Addresses Sam Darnold’s Future, Hints at Large Contract Ahead
Vikings coach Wes Phillips is impressed. After all, Sam Darnold is coming off of possibly the greatest game of his career, complete with passing yards that soar past the 300 yards benchmark while tossing 5 touchdowns.
Phillips understandably had good things to say about Minnesota’s top passer during Tuesday’s press conference. The Vikings’ offensive coordinator believes that the work that Darnold has done in 2024 should make the passer comfortable focusing on what’s directly in front of him.
Vikings Coach Wes Phillips on Sam Darnold
At present, Mr. Darnold is the 6th-ranked passer on PFF. The 86.4 grade is borderline elite and easily the best number of his career.
The QB1 has led Minnesota to an 11-2 record. He’s completing an impressive 68.4% of his passes, quite the feat for someone who wasn’t even at 60% for his career when he started with the Vikings. Now add on 3,299 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. Great stuff from Darnold, especially since he has been able to gain ground with his legs, too.
Wes Phillips thinks that all of this work helps to take the pressure off of Darnold. There’s no need to worry about his future since the play over the majority of the season has been so stellar when taken as a whole.
“In my mind, I would hope he would kind of say,” Phillips explains, “‘Hey, the body of work that I’ve put in so far is going to take care of the future, so really all I need to worry about is right now.'”
Phillips goes on: “I think we all know that Sam is going to be a sought-after type of guy, from wherever that may be. Whatever his future ends up being, I know all of us in this building are going to be happy for him no matter where that ends up being. I don’t think he has to worry about that anymore; I think the worry might have been, ‘OK, this is my opportunity to play.’ Alright, he’s past all that, he’s proven the doubters [wrong]. And he’s proven that he can play in this league. Let’s just make this the best possible season we can have and starting this week.”
Following the offensive coordinator’s rationale?
Coming into the season, Sam Darnold may have been feeling like he was entering his last chance to earn a huge payday. Going into Week 15, though, Darnold has progressed beyond some of that uncertainty due to how well he has played. There’s no longer any need to worry about whether he can play at a high level since he has spent most of the season showing that he can.
The end result should be liberating for Darnold, at least in Wes Phillips’ mind. The past has been so strong that the future is no longer a concern. The upside is that Darnold can focus on the present.
The other fascinating tidbit to emerge is simply that Phillips recognizes that Darnold will be “sought after.” Teams around the NFL are noticing the strong play and will compete for his services. The end result is going to be a hefty contract, one that far exceeds anything he has made so far in the NFL.
The questions at this stage, then, are twofold: 1) Just how high can the Vikings soar in 2024 with Darnold leading the charge? 2) Do the Vikings drain the ATM to keep him around beyond the current season? Those questions will need to be answered in due time as the focus remains on the present moment.
Sam Darnold, 27, is playing on a one-year contract that’s paying him $10 million. Whether in Minnesota or elsewhere, those contract numbers will soon get blown to smithereens.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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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.