The Minnesota Vikings still want Sam Darnold in their quarterback room next year, but that looks much less likely after the developments of the last 24 hours.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Thursday that, despite reports to the contrary, Darnold remains among Minnesota’s top offseason priorities.
“The [Vikings] continue to want Sam Darnold back, while also trying to build a team around him,” Rapoport wrote in an X post. “It’s one of several needles to thread in Minnesota.”
It was always going to be difficult for the Vikings to bring Darnold back considering the presence of J.J. McCarthy on the roster, who the team drafted No. 10 overall in 2024. The key to getting Darnold to return, after Minnesota chose not to use the $40 million franchise tag to keep the QB ahead of the March 4 deadline, was a lack of a big payday for him in free agency.
Several teams, including the Las Vegas Raiders, profiled as likely candidates to pursue Darnold after he put up a 4,300-yard and 35-touchdown campaign. The Raiders solved their QB issues, at least in the short-term, by trading a third-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks on Friday for Geno Smith.
However, that development rendered Seattle a motivated buyer for Darnold in free agency, and Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports reported on Saturday that Darnold is now “highly unlikely” to be with the Vikings again in 2025.
“The [Seahawks], after trading Geno Smith to the [Raiders], have shifted their primary focus to Sam Darnold,” Schultz wrote in an X post. “He is their No. 1 option, and there is mutual interest on his behalf as well. It is highly unlikely that Darnold returns to the [Vikings], according to multiple sources.”
Vikings Have Prioritized J.J. McCarthy Over Sam Darnold for Entirety of Offseason
GettyQuarterback J.J. McCarthy of the Minnesota Vikings.
Perhaps the biggest issue for the Vikings when it comes to re-signing Darnold is that they have only ever been willing to do so entirely on their own terms.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported on February 21 that Minnesota was fully committed to McCarthy as the franchise’s future and that any QB in-house in 2025 was merely a “bridge quarterback.”
Louis Riddick — Fowler’s colleague at the network — reiterated Saturday that McCarthy is the priority in Minnesota, not Darnold.
“I would expect that whatever the [Vikings] do, it is with the ultimate goal being to see that the QB that they drafted 10TH OVERALL less than a year ago becomes the starting franchise QB he is capable of becoming … sooner rather than later,” Riddick posted to social media.
Vikings Unwilling to Pay Sam Darnold Big Over Multiyear Deal
GettyQuarterback Sam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings could have solved the problem, albeit expensively, by slapping Darnold with the tag. However, doing so would have cost them nearly two-thirds of the $64 million in space they have remaining for 2025.
Minnesota also has its secondary, interior offensive line and interior defensive line to consider and currently holds the rights to just four draft picks in April to add inexpensive rookie talent.
The Vikings could have tagged Darnold with the intent to trade him, though that would have been a risk as he could have simply disagreed with any trade destination and signed the tag, putting Minnesota on the hook for the full $40 million with no other way out.
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