Recent reporting on the pending free agency of Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold has claimed that he is seeking some modest commitment with a three-year contract, per Diana Russini of The Athletic. A more up-to-date report from senior NFL insider Josina Anderson tells us that Darnold is not limiting his opportunities to three-year deals, instead remaining open to multiple opportunities in hopes of landing any sort of multi-year deal. 
The desire for consistent job security is an understandable one for a quarterback who hasn’t been given much of a chance anywhere he’s been. One could argue that the Jets gave Darnold three years after drafting him No. 3 overall in 2018 out of USC, but in reality, after two decent seasons that showed improvement, Darnold was traded away after one bad year.
As a rookie in New York, Darnold didn’t win many games as a starter — rookie quarterbacks rarely do. Still, with a 4-9 record in 13 games played, Darnold threw for 2,865 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions while only completing 57.7 percent of his passes. At the time, he was throwing to Robbie Chosen, rookie fourth-round tight end Chris Herndon, Quincy Enunwa, and Jermaine Kearse, while his 26th-ranked run game was buoyed by Isaiah Crowell, Bilal Powell, and Elijah McGuire.
In his sophomore campaign, despite the acquisition of Le’Veon Bell — fresh off a year of not playing football — the Jets’ rushing attack ranked even worse at 31st in the league. An improved receiving corps of Chosen, Jamison Crowder, Demaryius Thomas, and the receiving back, Bell, helped improve Darnold’s individual performance, though. Going 7-6 in 13 games played, Darnold improved his completion percentage to 61.9 while throwing for 3,024 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.
For Darnold’s third year at the helm, the Jets brought in a new veteran running back in Frank Gore, who did not quite capture the success he had held in San Francisco with New York. Once again, he was throwing to a new group of receivers as Crowder, Breshad Perriman, Braxton Berrios, and Denzel Mims were his new main targets. Darnold regressed a bit with this group, completing only 59.1 percent of his passes for 2,208 yards, nine touchdowns, and 11 interceptions in 12 starts, going 2-10 in those games.
The Jets traded Darnold to the Panthers the following year, where he finally had a decent running back, though Christian McCaffrey would only play in seven games that year before Chuba Hubbard ultimately filled in. Darnold also finally had a playmaking receiver in D.J. Moore, but behind him and Chosen, McCaffrey’s seven-game output and third-string running back Ameer Abdullah were the next top receiving performances for the year, so his stats didn’t much improve from the prior year.
The next season, Carolina brought in Baker Mayfield to start, benching Darnold until the final six games of the season. Finally being provided a top-10 rushing attack, though still throwing to a lackluster group, Darnold led the Panthers to a 4-2 record in those six starts, throwing seven touchdowns to only three interceptions and showing just a hint of what he could do with a decent supporting group.
After a year as strictly a backup in San Francisco, Darnold arrived in Minnesota, where he unceremoniously earned the starting job thanks to an injury to rookie first-rounder J.J. McCarthy. Given a 1,000-yard rusher for the first time in his career and by far the best group of receivers he ever worked with, led by superstar Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and tight end T.J. Hockenson, Darnold shined. With this elite group, Darnold delivered career highs in completion percentage (66.2), passing yard (4,319), and touchdowns (35) while only throwing 12 interceptions.
Darnold showed the league that he was not a bust of a No. 3 overall pick. He showed the NFL that when a team invested in putting an offense around him with good weapons, he was a Pro Bowler capable of winning 14 games and falling just a game short of the No. 1 seed in the NFC. It makes sense, then, that, wherever he goes next, be it Seattle, Tennessee, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, or maybe even New York again, the 27-year-old will want more than a year and, ideally, enough time for a team to put some major supporting pieces around him.
GROAN. Sam didn’t “earn” the starting job in Minnesota because JJ McCarthy got hurt. Sam was always going to start!!!!!!!!!!!
Showed up big time in the biggest games last season…
Except for the final 2
Those games were a full team collapse, including coaching.
Bakers contract is a good starting point.
Maybe 35 or 36 mill instead of 33 and maybe 4 years instead of 3
So somewhere benwteen bakers contract and cousins contract
With the cap increase, the baseline would be 3 years/$120M since Baker was at 3/$100M with a $28.8M signing bonus. Darnold has a bit more demand than Baker did so I wouldn’t be surprised if it inches upwards. Not sure if he’ll get the coveted $50M/year mark unless a team decides to go all in LOL.
I don’t think I watched any full Vikings games last year, but when I saw the highlights, I saw Darnold making some big time plays.
I get that he had great weapons but it still seemed like he part of that success rather than just a product of it.
Maybe that’s why they are called highlights, but I think he might be a better bet than he’s being given credit for right now.
But, maybe not as good a bet as a weak FA market is going to require.
This is really biased.
Enunwa was a good WR when healthy to the point that he got a big extension. He just couldn’t stay healthy.
Powell and Crowell were actually really good together in NY to the point Crowell got that deal from the Raiders when he became a free agent after they signed Bell.
Darnold was very up and down in Carolina despite having a much better supporting cast.
2yr/$62m guarantee is about it.
What was demonstrated last season was that an outstanding receiving corps
can make any QB look good and enable good numbers to be put up.
and then there’s caleb. i know, he was a rookie. but look at what jayden was working with.
Caleb Williams, yawn.
More to the point about the Jets being especially garbage.
Darnold was exposed in the last few games and playoffs as I think Defenses caught up to his tendencies. Granted it was getting him nervous (which is how you get most QBs to make mistakes) but I think Darnold has too much past baggage in that regard and that while a good season in Minnesota will get him a big payday, it will likely be disappointing returns for the team that does that, unless they have already have a good offense and just need a QB, which is rare.
Bull about being exposed…the Lions defense had all of their numbers….receivers were blanketed on almost every play, the pass rush totally owned the Vikings O-Line and more times than not, gave him max 2 seconds to get the snap, read, and then run…Forest …run….its bullshit that Darnold takes the blame for what was a total collapse of the O-Line of the Vikings and McConnell owns all the blame for a bad game plan and ZERO adjustments after halftime….not saying he’s Joe Montana, but he had a terrific season…..the question is …..is he the QB of 24 or of the previous starts around the league…..
To add to that, the Lions pressured him 80.5% of the time. The Vikings threw the ball 67% of the time in the last three games, and 69% of the time in the wildcard game. In the wildcard game, he was sacked nine times and pressured 67.5% of the time. And Kevin O’Connell used to be the offensive coordinator for the Rams when they won the Super Bowl. Sean McVay knew exactly what Minnesota was going to do offensively. When the Rams played the Eagles, Jalen Hurts was pressured only 44.4% of the time and still had seven sacks. One of them was a safety.
The Eagles had Saquon Barkley and he ran for 260 yards on 26 carries. 100 more yards than the entire Vikings run game combined on four more carries than the entire Vikings run game combined. Including Sam. It looks like Kevin O’Connell didn’t even make any adjustments from one game to the next, let alone within the game. They could’ve used Sam as an extra rusher. The defense would have to account for or run more play action, but they would’ve had to establish a run game first.
I went through the stats of each game and throughout the season, Sam had to throw more and more. It started out with him throwing 20+ times a game, midseason was 30+ times a game, and by the end of the season he was throwing 40+ times a game.
Darnold has a inflated opinion of himself.
Exactly what NFL athlete or any athlete in any sport doesn’t these days……
He knows he’s worth more than a one year, $25 million deal with a quarterback competition and injury caveat. All he was asking for was a modest commitment of a multi year deal. It didn’t even have to be three years. He already signed two one-year contracts in a row. After the quarterback, hell he’s been through his first five years in the league, he deserves to enjoy himself playing football.
I have to admit this article glazes darnold so much
In NY he had 3 chances to be a good qb but was bad in all of them, he didn’t have good coaching and supporting players so I’ll give him that
In Carolina he had a really hot start and then went back to being horrible after like 3 games
In Minnesota they weren’t expecting to compete this year and they were planning on giving McCarthy a year off anyways but darnold had a good coach for the first time in his career and had Justin Jefferson
Mark my words in darnold goes to Tennessee or Seattle he’s going to do bad again since they don’t have a genius like Kevin o Connell
Well that genius KO’C failed to make a single after halftime adjustment in the playoff game that Darnold gets railed for…….guess you don’t believe that sometimes a QB takes time and the right circumstances, coaching, and team around him to turn the corner…..the Jets and Carolina stunk when he was there….
They still suck. The Jets had Super Bowl champion and four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers and still finished 5-12. They gave him everything he wanted. The Panthers go through quarterbacks like they’re playing fantasy football.
Agreed. The first couple sentences of the last paragraph reads like they were written by his agent