Heading into the 2025 NFL season, one of the biggest questions surrounding the league is the status of Sam Darnold with the Minnesota Vikings.
That’s right, while Darnold will undoubtedly be among the most in-demand quarterbacks in the NFL after becoming a Pro Bowler for the 2024 NFL season, he could end up bypassing the free agent market entirely if the Vikings negotiate a new long-term deal or simply place their franchise tag on the USC product.
Is that a possibility? Could the Vikings retain Darnold for another season despite JJ McCarthy being good to go? Well, at the 2025 NFL Combine, GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah broke down how the team is feeling about Darnold heading into March, including how much they are weighing his final two losses before the 16 games that came before them.
“I was telling my staff, if I could’ve bought of a brain teaser of an experiment to think through, that would’ve been a pretty tough one — where [you have] a Pro Bowl quarterback, win all those games, and then you lose to two teams twice,” Adofo-Mensah said. “And so that was really kind of the ore of our offseason, really thinking through that holistically. Not trying to be overweighted by those eight quarters, but not underweighting those last two games. Really, he played a lot of good football for us. Year 1 in the system, so you can expect more later. And so, we’re excited [about] the potential for Sam — whatever that ends up being.
“But it’s a tough exercise. I want to make sure that we’re continually saying we’re so proud of what he did for us. We’re so proud of this team. It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but a lot of good things happened. We continue to lay the foundation for the team we want to be, and we’ll continue to go forward.”
Head coach Kevin O’Connell commented on the situation too, noting that he has recently talked to Darnold and feels good about their relationship.
“I’ve had great dialogue with Sam from the time the season ended up until very, very recently,” O’Connell said. “I think my relationship with Sam has grown to a point where the respect level is sky high. This process is going to play out both short-term and long-term for the Minnesota Vikings. And Sam is in a position where the NFL thinks he can play quarterback at a high level.
“So, that’s a really good thing, and I feel very proud to be a part of helping him get to this point. We’ll see where it goes from here.
Will the Vikings go all in on Darnold? Will the Vikings say goodbye to their first Pro Bowl quarterback since Kirk Cousins in 2022? Or will they fall somewhere in between, giving him the tag and kicking the can down the road one more year? Vikings fans will get an answer soon enough.
The post Where Vikings stands with Sam Darnold ahead of the NFL Combine appeared first on ClutchPoints.
