Arguably, the biggest storyline surrounding the Minnesota Vikings this offseason and heading into the 2025 season is how the quarterback position will shake out. Last offseason, the team signed quarterback Sam Darnold to a one-year deal, hoping he would be a bridge to the rookie J.J. McCarthy when he was finally ready to take the reigns.
While that may have been the team’s initial intent, plans changed quickly, as McCarthy suffered a season-ending injury in the pre-season, officially making it Darnold’s team for the foreseeable future. Almost nobody could have predicted just how far Darnold would take the opportunity.
Not only did Darnold prove to be a competent quarterback for the Vikings, he turned in a career year under head coach Kevin O’Connell and, at times during the season, was in the conversation for MVP. Darnold fell off at the end of the year and even further in the Vikings’ playoff loss to the Rams, but the season he turned in was stellar nonetheless.
So much so that a major talking point has become, “What do the Vikings do about Sam Darnold?” One NFL analyst believes the answer is to sign the veteran quarterback to a long-term deal.
Recently, ESPN put out an article outlining their thoughts and predictions on the 2025 offseason for every team, and analyst Benjamin Solak predicts the Vikings give Darnold a new deal in the off-season, saying:
I really, truly believe the Vikings will extend Darnold. They have the room for something in the Daniel Jones neighborhood — four years, $160 million is probably optimal, if they can get Darnold to sign that before another team in the free market offers him a whale of a deal. Depending on the size of the contract, they’ll either keep McCarthy or quietly look to trade him ahead of a bad quarterback draft class and see if a needy team takes the bait.
The idea that the Vikings might opt to sign Darnold and flip McCarthy for some NFL Draft assets probably had more legs before Darnold laid an egg against the Lions and Rams to close out the season. Still, for a team strapped for assets in this year’s draft, it may be an appealing option.
