Vikings Fans Should Cool It on Sam Darnold
Somewhere along the line, Minnesota Vikings fans decided that Sam Darnold must be held to an elite standard.
Vikings Fans Should Cool It on Sam Darnold
And it’s mind-boggling.
Darnold has only thrown 2 touchdown passes in the team’s last three games, causing some onlookers to criticize his performance after a breakneck pace from Week 1 to 3. On the whole in 2024, Darnold’s team has a 5-1 record and remains firmly in the driver’s seat to reach the postseason.
Yet, some Super Bowl-starved Vikings enthusiasts demand more. During postgame, fan-line talk shows, folks called into various stations to question whether the bottom had fallen out for Darnold, wondering if he had turned back into a “pumpkin,” or more realistically — turned back into Sam Darnold.
The problem with that question or theory is expecting Darnold to play at a Top 5 quarterback clip at all times. Put simply, he isn’t that good. He should never be thrust into Top 5 conversations, even if he obliterated the league in the season’s first three games.
He would always regress — because that’s what $10 million quarterbacks do. Meanwhile, Minnesota doesn’t need Darnold to be its savior. He’s along for the 2024 ride as a “bridge quarterback” to J.J. McCarthy, who inconveniently tore his meniscus in August. McCarthy is the future; Darnold is not.
For now, Darnold ranks 10th in the NFL per EPA+CPOE among all qualifying quarterbacks, an efficiency metric measuring expected wins added. He has not plunged outside the Top 10, yet some are acting like he’s suddenly utter rubbish. The man is on pace for 3,882 passing yards, 34 passing touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. Imagine if McCarthy were putting up those statistics. Minneapolis would be ablaze with excitement.
Instead, it’s wondering if Darnold is any good or pumpkin-ish.
Darnold said after the loss to Detroit, “It’s still early in the season. Obviously, Detroit is a good football team. Green Bay is a really good football team. Chicago is a good football team. We’re just going to continue to put our heads down and work. That’s all we know how to do.”
“We have a short week this week and got a lot of guys in there already recovering and getting ready for Thursday [against the Rams]. It’s a quick turnaround. We’ve just got to continue to – as we do all the time, but especially this week – put our heads down and move on to the next one,” he added.
Darnold is a quarterback akin to [prime version] Carson Palmer, Kerry Collins, Jay Cutler, or Joe Flacco for the Vikings — at best. He wasn’t supposed to morph into Joe Burrow, and he won’t.
That’s what J.J. McCarthy is [hopefully] for.
During the Vikings’ next 11 games, pretend you’re watching Carson Palmer or Kerry Collins, and you might be happier.
It’s akin to hoping Naz Reid of the Minnesota Timberwolves will morph into Kevin Durant. It simply won’t happen — but fans still love him.
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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