After putting together a magical season with the Minnesota Vikings, Sam Darnold is onto his next team. Darnold inked a three-year deal with the Seattle Seahawks worth $105.5 million with $55 million in guaranteed money.
The departure means that the Vikings are officially entering the J.J. McCarthy era in Minnesota. While the team could still bring in someone like Aaron Rodgers (and boy do the jokesters want this one to happen) or Russell Wilson, as of this writing, McCarthy appears to be in line to start for the Vikings this year.
With Darnold off to Seattle, let's take a look at the winners and losers of this move.
Winner: Sam Darnold
This one is obvious. Darnold just signed a deal that gives him $55 million guaranteed and he has the big money that he earned with his performance in the 2024 season. No one expected Darnold to do what he did in 2024 because, quite frankly, the guy had been considered a major bust up until then.
Darnold, who went third overall to the Jets in 2018, flamed out in New York before struggling in Carolina. He served as a backup for the 49ers in the 2023 season and then came to the Vikings as someone to provide competition for whichever young quarterback Minnesota drafted.
J.J. McCarthy was then injured and well, the rest is history. Darnold put together a career year and now he's being paid like a franchise quarterback. The Seahawks did trade away DK Metcalf and released Tyler Lockett but Jaxon Smith-Njigba is still there and will likely be Darnold's top target with his new team.
Darnold won't have offensive-genius Kevin O'Connell following him to Seattle so we'll have to see if he's a winner this time next year. For now, however, he's making a lot of money so that makes him a big winner.
Loser: Vikings
This isn't necessarily the worst thing to happen to the Vikings but it is a bit unfortunate that they helped Darnold revamp his career and now he's off to greener pastures while Minnesota's quarterback situation is still iffy at best.
Sure, the plan was for the Vikings to eventually hand the keys to the car over to J.J. McCarthy but he's coming off a major injury and has yet to play in an NFL regular season game. If McCarthy isn't ready to go and the Vikings don't have a better option, this season could end up being a total disaster.
That being said, not giving Darnold this contract isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Vikings. With the quarterback situation being up in the air a bit still, however, they land in the losers category... for now at least.
Winner: J.J. McCarthy
McCarthy didn't have a chance to win the starting job a year ago due to his injury but now, unless the team brings someone else in, it's his job to lose. McCarthy entered the 2024 NFL Draft fresh off a National Championship title and did enough to impress the Vikings that they spent the 10th overall pick on him in the draft.
The rest of the 2024 quarterback draft class ended up being one of the best in recent years with Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, and Bo Nix all playing well (the jury is still out on Michael Penix Jr.). McCarthy didn't get a chance to show where he ranks in that draft class and now he might get his chance, assuming he's healthy enough.