The Minnesota Vikings must decide this offseason whether to re-sign Sam Darnold as the QB1 in 2025, start 22-year-old J.J. McCarthy, who the team drafted with the 10th overall pick last April, or find a way to have it both ways.
Kyle Rudolph Predicts Vikings QB Outcome
Everyone has an opinion and prediction about how the Vikings should or will maneuver their quarterback quandary, and former Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph isn’t excluded.
Rudolph spoke to Bleacher Report at the Super Bowl’s radio row this week, predicting, for the most part, that Darnold will hit the open market in free agency.
“Ultimately, Sam will hit the open market unless they decide, ‘We want to work toward a long-term deal.’ The franchise tag is always in play. I don’t think you want Sam playing on the franchise tag,” Rudolph said.
Rudolph spent a decade in Minnesota as the team’s TE1, so he knows a little bit about the franchise’s interworkings.
“The market will decide ultimately what Minnesota can do. I think he gets to the open market, and there becomes a bidding war with a couple of quarterback-needy teams. There are not great quarterbacks in this year’s draft. Last year, you saw six quarterbacks go in the Top 12,” Rudolph added.
“If he was a free agent last year like he is this year, you have a little bit more leverage. I’m not gonna pay you $45 million when some other teams might pay you $45 million.”
Before capitulating in Minnesota’s final two games of the 2024 campaign, Darnold supplied MVP stats, bearing 35 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions with 4,319 passing yards. But Minnesota has rookie J.J. McCarthy waiting to take over as QB1; it’s just a matter of when on McCarthy, who tore his meniscus last August and missed the entire year.
Darnold personally chatted with SiriusXM Radio last week and sounded like a player who will test free agency. “I’ve put a little bit of thought into it. I’m not going to share anything about, kind of, what I’ve been thinking or, obviously, the conversations I’ve had behind closed doors,” Darnold said.
“There’s obviously, a lot that’s going to happen still, even after the Super Bowl. So, I’m just going to continue to talk to my agent and figure things out from there.”
Most players on their way back to their previous employer might’ve said something like, “I hope to return to the Vikings.” Darnold did not say that. Perhaps he knows he’ll hit free agency, and Rudolph has it right.
Meanwhile, J.J. McCarthy has one request this offseason, speaking with Rich Eisen this week: he just wants his chance to lead the franchise.
“There’s a lot of things that are certainly above my pay grade and some things above his pay grade,” McCarthy replied when asked about his teammate Sam Darnold’s impending free agency.
McCarthy told Eisen, “All I could ask for is a fair opportunity. That’s the one thing I feel like everybody’s given and it’s fundamental. When money gets involved, things get complicated and reps get skewed and there’s different things that come into the whole political world that everyone talks about. I really just have to focus on controlling what I can control.”
The stars may align with Rudolph’s prediction: Darnold will probably end up testing the free-agent market.
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.