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Sam Darnold finds himself in an interesting situation with the Minnesota Vikings, who have Daniel Jones on the practice squad along with J.J. McCarthy on the injured list. Darnold has drawn Baker Mayfield comparisons, but there are questions about his future with the Vikings.
Darnold’s situation is similar to that of Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield, who signed a one-year, $4 million contract to compete for the Buccaneers' starting job in 2023. Mayfield threw for 4,044 yards and 28 touchdowns that season and led the Buccaneers to the divisional round of the playoffs. Earlier this year, he re-signed for three years and $100 million. Will Darnold get that kind of deal?
Mayfield has turned in another strong season, tied — with Darnold — for third in the NFL with 28 touchdown passes. Mayfield is fourth with 3,329 yards for a Bucs team that appears headed for the playoffs again.
Vikings QB Sam Darnold having impressive season
Darnold has likely changed opinions across the NFL, giving him a wide variety of options across the league if he becomes a free agent. However, there is a big question. Is Darnold excelling because of head coach Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings’ talented receivers? One NFL executive brought that question to light, according to espn.com.
“What's Darnold doing versus what's the product of the (Vikings' system)?” the executive said. “The first half of the season he's playing with a lead every game. Now their games have gotten stickier and he's doing more. That could be a trend.”
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Darnold's numbers hard to ignore
Darnold has thrown for 3,299 yards this season with a serious 28-to-10 TD-to-interception ratio. However, first and foremost, his record of 11-2 heading into Monday night’s game against the Bears stood out the most. Darnold bounced back strongly from a recent poor game against Jacksonville. But he proved his worth, according to O’Connell’s comments via Sports Illustrated.
“I think there can be incredible growth in moments where, maybe on the outside, it seemed leaving Jacksonville like there's something really wrong,” O’Connell said. “Sam's going back in Monday morning and, based upon a lot of things that Josh (McCown), Grant (Udinski), and myself talked to him about, almost self-coaching. ‘If I just have better feet there or I don't know why my eyes were there.’ (It) was an incredible growth moment for him to just come back the next week and start stacking some things.”
Furthermore, Darnold said he’s comfortable in O’Connell’s offense.
“The thing that I talk about all the time is the amount of time we've put into this offense since April, we've been running very similar concepts even during the season that we've been running since then,” Darnold said. “So just the comfort level that I have with those play-action passes to be able to go run them in games very seamlessly and go find completions no matter where they are, whether they're 5 yards down the field or 50 yards down the field.”
