For all the success of the 2024 season, the Vikings’ campaign ended in massive disappointment and two dreadful outings for their hero, quarterback Sam Darnold.
The conclusion has produced a fresh set of questions regarding Minnesota’s outlook as it ventures into 2025. Is Darnold part of the Vikings’ plans? Where does 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy fit into them? And is head coach Kevin O’Connell long for Minnesota?
First up: O’Connell’s future, as he has just one year remaining on his current deal.
“I do,” O’Connell said when asked if he wants to sign an extension with the Vikings. “I’ve had great dialogue with our ownership, and this week in reflection as the season came to an end and anything beyond that, I would prefer to kind of keep those discussions internal.”
O’Connell declined to give a timeline for when he’d like to sign an extension, but was asked if rumors of possible internal tension are legitimate.
“What I would say is I love being the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings,” O’Connell said. “I love our ownership, I have a great relationship with our ownership. Feel so fortunate, like I said, not only the way they support us and believe in us, but also the impact they have on our players, our locker room and ultimately where we all want to go together. Feel very, very great about that.”
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Then there’s the team’s quarterback conundrum.
Darnold posted a career year as the unexpected starter of the Vikings, completing 66.2% of his passes for 4,319 yards and posting a 35-12 TD-INT ratio. With Darnold leading the way, Minnesota won 14 games and nearly secured the NFC’s top seed entering the postseason.
The Vikings didn’t, though, because they lost in blowout fashion to the NFC North rival Lions in Week 18 in a game that stood as Darnold’s worst of 2024. When the lights shined even brighter a week later, Darnold again fell short, completing 25 of 40 passes but appearing overwhelmingly hesitant while taking nine sacks in another lopsided loss.
With McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season after hurting his knee in the preseason, on the roster and considering how Darnold ended the season, the veteran’s place on the team is far from guaranteed with free agency looming.
“For me, looking at Sam’s body of work, Sam should be very proud of what he put together,” O’Connell said. “From start to finish, he answered the bell day in and day out with his preparation. I think he learned a lot about what can be in this league. I think he proved to the whole league that he can play a winning level at quarterback, winning 14 games really in the first year. Nobody’s been able to do before in our league and I think that’s a testament to Sam and (quarterbacks coach) Josh (McCown) and (assistant quarterbacks coach) Grant (Udinski), the guys working with him on a daily basis, and his teammates around him.
“When I think about the year that Sam had, I envisioned him having that kind of year when we identified him as a guy that we wanted to add to this organization last year and everything that took place after that was all systematic process to help him play the best football of his career, which I think he did. I’m really proud of Sam for that.”
Yes, Darnold deserves commendation for his efforts, but praise alone won’t properly describe his season in total, nor will it inform the Vikings in how they proceed. Because he’s a personnel executive, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah operates from a roster-building perspective, noting “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to assemble a lot of talented players in that room who fit your vision.” He feels good about the team’s situation at the position and said as much Thursday without committing to Darnold, instead placing value on roster flexibility.
“When you think about that decision (drafting McCarthy at No. 10), again I’ve talked about the most important position in the sport, you want to give yourself options,” Adofo-Mensah said. “I think the draft is uncertain, free agency, all of this is uncertain. We brought in two guys who we think can play at a high level at quarterback in this position.
“Obviously, J.J. being a high draft pick is somebody that you’re invested in for the future and all those different things. How that looks timeline-wise, we didn’t necessarily decide. We knew that we really like the room that we had, and we were confident in that.”
According to Adofo-Mensah, McCarthy appears to be on track for a 2025 return. It sounds as if it’s up to McCarthy to take the job in the coming season, and while they’re months from beginning such a process, the Vikings seem willing to afford him the opportunity.
How Darnold factors into those plans remains to be seen. When reviewing Darnold’s season while answering questions about his future, Adofo-Mensah spoke in a past tense before explaining his logic when preparing for the future.
“We got to see Sam play some incredible football for us,” he said. “Won a lot of big games: at Seattle, at Lambeau. The production that he was able to do, we’re talking about games where he won them for us. There was a lot of games where he was a win-because-of type player.
“You also have to net that with all that in totality. We’re going to approach this offseason, and I don’t want to give you the stock answer, everything we do is about, ‘What’s the team around him going to look like?’ Does this piece fit into a whole championship equation? We’re going to do those exercises like we did last season.”
Judging by O’Connell’s tone on the matter since their season-ending loss to the Rams, it sounds as if the Vikings are prepared to watch Darnold leave for more money and a starting opportunity elsewhere, a right he earned with his play in 2024.
The Vikings have some tough decisions to make regarding their roster this offseason starting with quarterback. They’ve licked their wounds from their late-season losses and will soon begin their path forward.
Whether that includes Darnold remains to be seen.