Sam Darnold’s surprisingly good play this year has led to good things for both himself and the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are off to a 5-1 start, and Darnold is the runaway favorite to win Comeback Player of the Year.
As good as he has been, though, the Vikings have not made any decisions regarding Darnold’s long-term future with the team, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
“(The Vikings) love where Sam Darnold is,” Breer said prior to Thursday night’s game between the Vikings and Rams. “His accuracy, his arm talent, his makeup, all of it shows why he was a third overall pick in the draft. (Vikings coach) Kevin O’Connell has been up front with Darnold, telling him, ‘Just have a good day, have a good practice, have a good game, and then we’ll have a good problem, and we’ll deal with it after the year.'”
The Vikings “good problem” would be the fact that they have two legitimate options at quarterback between Darnold and J.J. McCarthy, the team’s first-round pick in April’s draft who suffered a season-ending knee injury during the summer. McCarthy was on the sideline during Thursday night’s game (making the first time this year that he has traveled for an away game) and was wearing a headset.
With McCarthy out, Darnold has taken full advantage of his unexpected opportunity to play. Entering Thursday night’s game, Darnold had thrown 12 touchdowns against just five interceptions this year while completing an impressive 66.5% of his passes. His play has been one of the biggest reasons for Minnesota’s fast start.
While Darnold has been stellar so far, it’s clear that he will have to continue to play at a similar level in order to be considered to be the Vikings’ long-term starter moving forward. For this year, however, it appears that the Vikings are all in on Darnold, whose storybook season is conjuring up memories of Randall Cunningham and his and the 1998 Vikings’ unexpected success.
