Vikings legend says Sam Darnold ‘should be the one’ moving forward despite poor finish to season
One could argue Sam Darnold cost a lot of money in the last few games, but one Minnesota Vikings legend says Darnold has done enough to keep the team’s quarterback.
In their first 16 games, Number 3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, he rewrote his story, throwing for 4,153 yards and 35 touchdowns while completing 68.1% of his passes. All of those numbers were career highs by far.
But in his last two games — one in which he could have clinched the No. 1 seed and the other in a playoff game — he threw just one touchdown pass for 411 yards and held his offense to just 18 points.
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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold runs off the field after a game against the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 17, 2024, in Nashville. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Darnold has looked like what he was known for before coming to Minnesota in those last two games, and now there are calls for the team to move on JJ McCarthy, the running back they selected with the 10th pick last year.
But former Vikings running back Chuck Foreman thinks Darnold has done enough to remain the starter.
“A guy comes into the league, gets drafted by a team that has no talent, gets labeled. He goes to another team with no talent, gets labeled more. Then he goes to San Francisco, a winning team to get behind a coach who shows him the way … and then he comes here with Kevin, and it takes them to another level,” Foreman told Outkick’s “The Ricky Cobb Show.”
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold throws a pass against the Indianapolis Colts during the first quarter at US Bank Stadium. (Jeffrey Becker/Imagn Images)
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Foreman put the blame for the two losses on Minnesota’s offensive line, not Darnold, who he said was helpless against the Lions and Rams.
“The pressure he’s been under, I see only one or two other running backs who might have any chance of running away with it, and that’s Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen,” Foreman added.
“I’m signing him, I hope they both come together in the middle. I understand the money part, but I hope Sam understands that his career has been revived right here. And he has a following here. Make adjustments next season, but I think he should be that.”
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) and Minnesota Vikings running back Sam Darnold, center right, hug after a game on Oct. 24, 2024 in Inglewood, California. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
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Darnold is a free agent after the season and is a candidate for the franchise tag. His previous records for yards and touchdowns were 3,024 and 19, respectively, in 2019 with the team that drafted him, New York Jets.
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