The Minnesota Vikings have a good problem on their hands. Sam Darnold is playing like an MVP candidate at quarterback and the Vikings have J.J. McCarthy waiting behind him as their quarterback of the future. But is there a path for Darnold to return as the starter in 2025?
CBS Sports insider Jonathan Jones thinks so. Speaking on the NFL on CBS’s pregame show, Jones said that the belief around the NFL is the Vikings and Darnold want to “stay together” after this season and put McCarthy on a similar plan that Jordan Love had with the Green Bay Packers.
“Darnold could get a Baker Mayfield-like deal in a lot of places, but he’s going to be selective about where he goes. And the Vikings, they’ve stayed mum on their plans beyond this year. They’re focused on the now.
If Darnold does stay, is it possible we see McCarthy on the bench, becoming a Jordan Love-type draft pick when that really wasn’t the intention last April?”
Minnesota Vikings decision for future with Sam Darnold is complicated
After signing a one-year, $10 million contract last spring, Darnold has been a successful reclamation project. He ranks fourth in the NFL with a 104.9 passer rating and has thrown 29 touchdowns for the Vikings, who enter Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks with a 12-2 record and a chance to earn home-field advantage in the playoffs for the first time since 1998.
But Darnold’s success means he’s going to get paid this offseason. Over The Cap gives Darnold a valuation of $34.5 million this season and Spotrac projects that Darnold could command a four-year, $140.5 million contract in free agency.
Darnold’s success also has some, including former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, calling to give him the Baker Mayfield contract, a three-year, $100 million deal signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last offseason.
While the Vikings have $76.4 million in cap space next offseason, they also have several free-agent decisions on cornerback Byron Murphy, running back Aaron Jones, and safety Cam Bynum.
With the need to improve other areas of the roster such as the interior offensive line and defensive line, the Vikings could need that money to build elsewhere, creating a complicated decision to retain Darnold.
In some ways, the Vikings could use the same decision-making process they used with Kirk Cousins last year. The Vikings wanted to retain Cousins as the bridge to a quarterback of the future. Still, his price skyrocketed when he was offered a four-year, $180 million contract by the Atlanta Falcons in free agency.
That decision hasn’t gone well for the Falcons, who benched Cousins a few days ago and plan to release him in 2025, and could put the Vikings in a similar spot if McCarthy overtakes Darnold at some point during the 2025 season.
The strategy has also had mixed results for the Packers, who have a starting quarterback in Love but had just one year of the rookie quarterback window before giving him a four-year, $220 million extension prior to the 2024 season.
It makes the Vikings’ decision on Darnold one of the biggest storylines of the offseason and could have major ramifications on the team’s future.