Deebo Samuel Endorses Breakout Viking
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel has a little bit of love for his old teammate.
Deebo Samuel Endorses Breakout Viking
Samuel crossed paths with Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold last year in San Francisco, and according to him, he and his teammates knew Darnold could thrive if given the opportunity.
Fast-forward to the 2024 campaign, with Darnold as the Vikings’ uncontested QB1, and the former third-overall pick is utterly excelling, leading the NFL in touchdown passes and ranking seventh per EPA+CPOE, an efficiency metric measuring expected wins added.
Per Samuel, Darnold’s breakout is more like fruition. “He’s playing lights out for sure. We always knew. We always knew. He was our No. 2 quarterback at the time. He had an arm. He was smart and would make the right decisions, and it’s kind of showing,” Samuel said on his Cleats and Convos show.
In Week 2, Darnold shredded Samuel’s 49ers en route to a 23-17 victory, highlighted by a 97-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson, which became the second-longest touchdown in Vikings history, only outdone by a 99-yard touchdown from Bernard Berrian 16 years ago.
Samuel added, “Like I said, he’s playing tremendous ball right now. You gotta give him his flowers.”
And Samuel isn’t the only NFL personality handing Darnold “his flowers.” So is Bill Belichick, a winner of six Super Bowls. Belichick joined The Pat McAfee Show this week and made it sound like everyone knew Darnold was a good football player — except the New York Jets, the franchise that drafted him third overall in 2018.
“I’ll say this — everybody has liked Darnold except the Jets,” Belichick said.
Belichick added, “The people in Carolina I talked to, they really liked him. … I know that Kevin O’Connell and some of the coaches in Minnesota, they really like this guy, too.”
One week ago, Hall of Famer passer Kurt Warner took a seat on the Darnold hype train. “A long way to go in season but fun to watch Sam Darnold play at this level & to hear coach O’Connell talk of the confidence he has in him! Always amazing to me what being somewhere you’re WANTED surrounded by people who BELIEVE in you can do for a person’s CONFIDENCE!!” Warner tweeted on Tuesday, two days after Minnesota knocked off the 49ers.
Warner was high on Darnold three weeks ago, too. He said earlier this month that he expected Darnold to have the best debut of any Week 1 quarterback in the NFL when Minnesota traveled to New Jersey for a date with the New York Giants. “I always like great stories. This is a guy that was drafted in New York. He’s going back to New York with a different team. I love his supporting cast, this being Sam Darnold. His supporting cast in Minnesota,” Warner declared.
Ergo, either everybody is wrong — like Deebo Samuel, Bill Belichick, and Kurt Warner — or Darnold is indeed the real deal.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment.