Should the Vikings play Sam Darnold in the 2024 preseason?

Since Kevin O’Connell took over as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, preseason games have been a tedious exercise. But coming into this preseason, O’Connell has a difficult challenge. 

With Kirk Cousins departing for the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings have turnover at the most important position in an offense that has taken many an extended period to master. We know we’ll see J.J. McCarthy getting his opportunity to prove himself this August, but should Sam Darnold also see action in preseason games?

The question stems from an argument that has intensified over several years. Preseason games used to follow a strict formula where the starters would gradually work themselves into game shape by playing a drive or two in the first game to playing a half or into the third quarter of the third preseason game.

As newer coaches came in, teams started limiting their starters' reps or even held them out altogether, turning preseason games into a glorified scrimmage.

Should the Minnesota Vikings sit QB Sam Darnold in the 2024 preseason?

Part of the reason is the NFL’s decision to go from four preseason games to three preseason games but there’s also the risk of injury. If Justin Jefferson or Kirk Cousins went down with an injury during a preseason game, O’Connell might have filled out his own pink slip while lighting the upcoming season on fire.

But there’s also the argument of rest and rust. For Cousins, it meant learning a new system in 2022 that presented plenty of difficulty as he entered his first training camp.

“This is really the first time since 2014…where I was really learning an offense from scratch,” Cousins said back in May 2022. “You have those moments in your career where you say ‘I really have to lock in and learn this,’ but there were other years where there were changes, but they were more subtle.”

Cousins admitted that he used flashcards to learn the terminology of O’Connell’s offense and later revealed he listened to play calls in his car during the Netflix docuseries "Quarterback". He later revealed during training camp that he wanted to adapt to O’Connell’s playstyle.

“It’s important to understand what he wants and not just play to, “Well, I’ve done this before, so I’ll just do this again.’” Cousins said. “It’s more of, ‘How do you want it to look? Let me execute it that way.”

While some extra reps could have helped, Cousins didn’t play a single snap during the 2022 preseason and made his debut in the regular season opener against the Green Bay Packers. Cousins shredded the Packers in that game with 277 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in a 23-7 win, but that wasn’t indicative of his progress as he threw for 1,502 yards, nine touchdowns, and five interceptions in his first six games.

Cousins would later say that he didn’t feel comfortable until a Week 7 game against the Arizona Cardinals and the stats backed it up with 3,045 yards, 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions over his final nine games. Cousins put an exclamation point by throwing for 273 yards and two touchdowns in a playoff loss to the New York Giants and throwing for 2,331 yards with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions before he was injured last October.

But the stats didn’t reflect the ups and downs along the way. The Vikings went into constant stretches of 3-and-outs while Cousins was the quarterback and a sloppy performance – which still resulted in 344 yards, two touchdowns and an interception – in a Week 1 loss the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last September raised the question of if he should have played more in preseason games.

“I don’t know if that’s the case,” O’Connell said when he was asked last September. “My expectation is that some of those things, whether they got reps or not, …12 reps here, 10 reps there. I don’t know if that would have solved that. We were close in the first half. If we finished that drive late in the first half, we have a chance to go up 17-3, and that might have given us an opportunity to be very similar to the spot we were going into the locker room a year ago in the opener.”

O’Connell also said that there were several things that he could have coached better in the leadup to the game.

“A lot of things we can improve on and things, like I said, are self-inflicted, but also things we can coach better,” O’Connell said. “Our players need to just be a little bit cleaner in their execution and give ourselves a little bit better chance to not set ourselves behind the 8-ball.”

But while Cousins had the advantage of a second season in O’Connell’s system and even longer as an NFL starter, Darnold is still relatively new. He played in a similar system under Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco but also had the same issue as Cousins, having different terminology and a different play style in his new home.

“A lot of times this far into the process, I’m drawing it on the whiteboard, saying it, and in my apartment taking the drops and doing all the footwork stuff that I need to do to make sure I’m prepared to practice for training camp and then go out there and play on Sundays.”

While poker chips and dropbacks have replaced flashcards, Darnold’s dropbacks indicate the need for full-speed reps. But unlike previous years, coaches now have more available to deliver that in a controlled environment.

The Vikings hosted a pair of joint practices with the Tennessee Titans and Cardinals last summer and coaches specifically tailor these practices with their best interest in mind. When Titans defensive lineman Teair Tart got into a fight last summer, he was thrown out of practice immediately, so things wouldn’t get off the rails.

With this in mind, it’s better to get Darnold the 10-12 reps he would have received in a preseason game in this environment rather than a preseason game where a hungry role player could be looking to improve his stock. If a third-string corner knocked out Darnold on a blitz, that could lead to McCarthy coming in before the coaching staff wanted him to, which could also place a strain on his development curve.

It’s a question that many coaches will be asking themselves once training camps open next month. However, for the Vikings, there is an additional layer that O’Connell and his staff will have to consider.

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