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Kevin Seifert, ESPN Staff Writer
GLENDALE, Arizona — Sam Darnold‘s dream season crashed during the past two weeks. It happened so quickly that Darnold seemed unwilling to process its implications in the moments after the Minnesota Vikings‘ 27-9 wild-card-round loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night.
“Obviously,” Darnold said, “at the end of the day, all that matters when you have a good season is, ‘What do you do in the playoffs?’ We didn’t get it done today, and that’s all that matters.”
Darnold appeared to have resurrected his career after signing a one-year contract with the Vikings and leading them to 14 wins, while throwing for career highs of 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns. Following the Vikings’ Week 17 victory over the visiting Green Bay Packers, teammates hoisted him on their shoulders in a symbolic celebration of his campaign.
Since that moment, however, Darnold regressed to some of the levels that cost him his jobs with the New York Jets in 2020 and the Carolina Panthers in 2022. In losses over the past eight days to the Rams and the Detroit Lions, he threw a combined 23 off-target throws, according to ESPN Research, and took a total of 11 sacks — including nine Monday night.
Where he once seemed on track for the Vikings to re-sign him or at least use their franchise tag to retain him for 2025, Darnold now heads toward free agency with his future as unsettled as ever.
“I’ll have a lot of time after this to think about what the season entailed,” Darnold said. “But to be honest, I’m just thinking about today and what I could have done better.”
Vikings All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson acknowledged the uncertainty and declined Monday night to weigh in on the team’s looming decision. Jefferson compared the situation to the one Minnesota faced last season with Kirk Cousins, although in that instance, Jefferson endorsed Cousins’ return.
“I didn’t know who my quarterback was going to be [after last season], and I really didn’t care,” Jefferson said. “At the end of the day, I’ll always say that I’m confident in myself to perform the same way I’ve been performing. But it’s not my job to say who is going to be the quarterback or who do I want to be the quarterback. At the end of the day, they’re going to figure it out, and whoever they decide to go with, we can work with that.”
Darnold sounded particularly disappointed with Monday’s sack total, which tied an NFL postseason record. The 82 yards he lost on those sacks was a postseason record. He held the ball an average of 4.73 seconds on those plays, eight of which came against a four-man rush.
“It’s up to me to be able to feel that and either step up, move, go run for a first down or just simply throw it away,” he said. “I felt like there were a lot of sacks that I was responsible for, where I was just holding onto the football and taking sacks where I could have dirted it at someone’s feet or simply thrown it over someone’s head.”
Asked why he didn’t, Darnold said: “Just an in-the-moment decision, trying to get away and wasn’t able to get the ball out.”
Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell offered some light critiques, pointing out that “there were some completions to be had.”
“You’ve got to find a way to check the ball down and just keep moving the ball forward,” he added. “Completions have negative effect on defenses. They just do. Those moments when you’re holding that ball, and your reaction is try to make a play.”
The organization will lean on O’Connell for a final decision on Darnold’s future and whether the coach is ready to turn the offense over to 2024 draft pick J.J. McCarthy or if O’Connell prefers to sign a different veteran. Speaking Monday night, O’Connell went out of his way to say it was “very important that we all think about Sam’s body of work” over the course of the season.
“What he was able to do this year, when not very many people thought he would be able to lead a team to 14 wins, which is rare,” O’Connell said. “The way he came in, committed himself to just a daily process to be the best version of himself. It did not work out in the end. I think Sam would be the first one to tell you. Could he have played better tonight? I’m sure he would tell you he could have. Could I have coached better? I promise you I could have. Could our team have rallied around a play here and there to keep it close? For sure.”