Sam Darnold
Sam Darnold Loses More Than Just a Playoff Game Against the Rams
3 weeks ago

The phone lines will be a little less busy in free agency after Sam Darnold’s poor playoff performance against the Rams.

The Minnesota Vikings season is over after a non-competitive 27-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. A longstanding story throughout the 2024 NFL season has revolved around the Vikings dilemma at quarterback. On one hand they’ve had a resurgent starting quarterback with Sam Darnold leading the Vikings to 14 wins. On the other, there is rookie first round pick J.J. McCarthy waiting in the wings after he recovers from injury. 

 

Sam Darnold was 25/40 with 245 passing yards and a touchdown. Darnold was seeing ghosts as he threw for an interception and took 9 sacks. The Rams defense tied and NFL record for sacks in a playoff game. Darnold had a 13.6 quarterback rating compared to Matthew Stafford’s 72.5 rating. 

 

Heading into the game, Sam Darnold was in position to either gain or lose a lot of money heading into the offseason. With such a brutal performance under the bright lights of the NFL playoffs, Sam Darnold cost himself a significant amount of money in free agency. Expect steam and signal to pick up on the Vikings confirming J.J. McCarthy as their starter in 2025 as Sam Darnold looks to sign with a team who sees his QB-9 performance as something to build off.

 

Jeremiah Retzlaff, @coachretzlaff1