Sam Darnold Cannot Win One Award
Until a recent clarification, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold was firmly in the mix to contend for the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award.
Sam Darnold Cannot Win One Award
He and Aaron Rodgers were neck and neck for CPOTY, but that’s basically moot heading into Week 7.
In short, the league wants the award to land in the lap of a player valiantly recovering from injury — not a comeback story involving a former draft bust. Regrettably for Darnold’s sake — though he probably doesn’t care — he falls in the reclamation-bust category.
Senior AP writer Rob Maaddi clarified the CPOTY stakes last week.
“Vikings QB Sam Darnold probably would’ve been a candidate for the Comeback Player of the Year award before the AP issued guidance to voters before the season, instructing them that ‘the spirit of the award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.’ If he keeps playing at this level, Darnold could end up with another award: Most Valuable Player,” Maaddi explained on the website formerly known as Twitter.
Voters must not consider past poor performance, instead rewarding courageous injury recoveries, for example. Last year, the NFL was apparently peeved that Joe Flacco won the trophy, a quarterback who edged Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Hamlin nearly died on the field in 2022, while Flacco merely hadn’t played much or well in about five years.
Darnold is, however, eligible for MVP, as Maaddi mentioned. He’s still in that race, ranking around seventh at the moment. He ranks fourth in touchdown passes and ninth per EPA+CPOE among all quarterbacks, an efficiency metric measuring expected wins added.
The Vikings’ QB1 is just outside of the MVP sprint’s top six, with six weeks of the regular season in the books, trailing Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens), Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs), Jayden Daniels (Washington Commanders), C.J. Stroud (Houston Texans), Josh Allen (Buffalo Bills), and Brock Purdy (San Francisco 49ers).
Here’s the MVP race odds as of October 16th:
- Patrick Mahomes (+325)
- Lamar Jackson (+550)
- C.J. Stroud (+650)
- Josh Allen (+650)
- Jayden Daniels (+1200)
- Brock Purdy (+1600)
- Sam Darnold (+1800)
Darnold and the Vikings next host the Detroit Lions on Sunday and are favored to win by two or three points.
The Lions have defeated the Vikings thrice consecutively but have not toppled Minnesota four times in a row since John F. Kennedy’s presidency.
Kirk Cousins is the current frontrunner (+160) to win CPOTY.
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.
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