While Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback Sam Darnold performed well all year, he did not play well in the team’s two most important games to end the season. As a result, it’s likely he will not be back with the team next season.
The Vikings were facing a bit of a quarterback conundrum next season as the team selected rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the 2024 NFL Draft. With Darnold playing so well and McCarthy suffering a season-ending injury before the season even began, there was some thought that the team could choose to re-sign Darnold and trade McCarthy.
However, after Darnold’s lackluster performance in the regular season finale against the Detroit Lions as well as his poor showing against the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs, the Vikings are now expected to part ways with him and move forward with McCarthy next season.
“When the lights got the brightest, Sam Darnold reverted to his ghost-seeing ways. And that makes it a lot easier to allow Darnold to become a free agent and to move forward with 2024 first-rounder J.J. McCarthy,” Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote.
“Some think McCarthy would be the top quarterback prospect in the incoming class of draft picks. Not long ago, that created a temptation to try to trade McCarthy. Now, it should be regarded as a glass-half-full reason to believe that things will be even better if/when McCarthy is running the offense.”
Darnold signed a one-year contract with the Vikings before the start of the 2024 season. If the Vikings are to bring him back, they would have to sign him to another contract, which will likely cost the team considerably more.
Given his struggles when it mattered most and the fact that the Vikings have another young quarterback waiting in the wings, the team is expected to let him leave the team as a free agent.
