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Before too long, the Minnesota Vikings’ brass will extend head coach Kevin O’Connell’s contract, and that’ll be that.
But according to the Pioneer Press, the team is under the gun to retain Sam Darnold beyond 2024, too.
PP’s Charley Walters wrote last weekend, “There is mounting pressure internally to extend the contracts of Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who is signed through 2025, and QB Sam Darnold, who can become a free agent after the season.”
Most would expect to see O’Connell’s name listed in a passage like that — he’s the league’s frontrunner to win Coach of the Year and is getting to a spot in his coaching career when NFL onlookers consider him a Top 10 skipper.
Darnold is a bit different, however.
“Mounting pressure” on re-signing a bridge quarterback in the middle of the season is a little strange. Minnesota drafted Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy in April with the 10th overall pick, and before he tore his meniscus, McCarthy vied for the QB1 job against Darnold in July and August. His season-ending injury concluded the quarterback battle.
The Vikings signed Darnold for ten million bucks in March, a very obvious deal to acquire a patchover quarterback to a passer to be named later. That turned out to be McCarthy.
Generally speaking, it is unclear why Minnesota would be feeling the pressure to re-sign Darnold in October 2024. That’s a discussion for February and March of 2025 — not unlike Kirk Cousins’ contractual dealings last offseason.
Darnold ranks 10th in the NFL per EPA+CPOE among all qualifying quarterbacks, an efficiency metric measuring expected wins added. He’s on pace for just under 4,000 passing yards, 34 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. If fans were told of that pace in July, for example, they would’ve been totally elated.
Yet, Darnold’s otherworldly performance from Week 1 to 3 has slowed, and some have realized he won’t sustain the elite clip.
Regardless, “under the gun” to extend him during the middle of the season is bizarre. That dialogue will be substantial and, in fact, cause raucous debates among fans if the Vikings tunnel deep into the postseason. At this moment, extending Darnold should be a nothingburger. That’s a February Vikings problem.
No matter what, too, Minnesota has McCarthy in the chamber for the long haul. They will not replace him with Darnold … barring a miraculous Super Bowl triumph — and they’d even think twice in that scenario.
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.