Yahoo Sports: Vikings keeping Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy together in 2025...

[Canthony]

Agree. There is no downside to expressing love for Darnold. Vikings are likely thinking..."Of course we want him back. For the love of God, have you been watching him? That does not mean we'll be aggressive competitors in an open market bidding war with our franchise QB on the bench." 

I think the Vikings are just going to let it play out and see where they sit in February. In other words, I don't think the decision on what to do with Darnold has been made yet. But I think it's pretty clear they're now having the "elephant in the room" conversation we talked about a few months ago.

This is exactly it. The Vikings are playing it perfect. Sam go play your best, we love you, of course we want you back, but go play your best and give us everything you got and we will work it out from there. That is literally all it is saying. The old dangling carrot on a stick if you will. I am sure Darnold wants to stay here. Well, go out and lets see what you do when the games are on the line. JJ can limp in and go one and done in the playoffs. The next month will tell everything.

[JimmyinSD]

It would be a dick move to tag a guy who is looking at +$100m contract. If he blows his knee out in training camp he’s lost significant career money.

Either sign him to 2-4 more years or let him go.

Them Sams camp should come up with a contract that works for Minny,  protects Sams bag,  but is still a tradeable asset.   I am certain that at this point he would jump at any reasonable opportunity to stay in Minny,  so I have to think there is a way to build a contract that limits Minnys 25 exposure, but still getS SD paid.

[CFIAvike]

I don’t see a scenario where the team moves forward with both JJ and Sam without doing damage to the team.

Sam has played himself into a big contract and I think he’s going to be seeking a long term deal. I don’t see him signing a 2 year deal unless the Vikings are willing to pay him an absorbent amount of money. So say that’s the plan….now all the cap space Kwesi cleared out will go to Darnold and tough decisions will have to be made as to who to keep. Free Agency will also be bargain shopping. This is why I don’t see this as an option. The only way to preserve cap space is to continue the plan and proceed with JJ next year.

Otherwise you sign Sam long term. The cap gets eaten up but not as bad as a short term deal. You replace the draft picks needed to build the team instead of through free agency by trading JJM to a QB needy team.

Go all in on Sam or push forward with JJM. These are the two choices

[DeepFreeze05]

[JimmyinSD]

I don’t see a scenario where the team moves forward with both JJ and Sam without doing damage to the team.

Sam has played himself into a big contract and I think he’s going to be seeking a long term deal. I don’t see him signing a 2 year deal unless the Vikings are willing to pay him an absorbent amount of money. So say that’s the plan….now all the cap space Kwesi cleared out will go to Darnold and tough decisions will have to be made as to who to keep. Free Agency will also be bargain shopping. This is why I don’t see this as an option. The only way to preserve cap space is to continue the plan and proceed with JJ next year.

Otherwise you sign Sam long term.  The cap gets eaten up but not as bad as a short term deal. You replace the draft picks needed to build the team instead of through free agency by trading JJM to a QB needy team.

Go all in on Sam or push forward with JJM. These are the two choices

The trade JJM option is terrible,  you wont get nesr the value that he could mean for this team,  you wont get enough picks to offset the players you would lose in FA bia less cap,  and honestly I dont think our GM and scouting department would tuen them into qualtiy players so it would be a high priced QB,  who could very likely turn back into a pumpkin after this year,   and nobody to help him after a year or 2.

I say you tag him and if JJM is ready to rock,  market Sam to a team that will allow him to continue his rebirth,  even if its for less than a more desperate team would be willing to offer,  got to do right by the kid in this instance IMO.

[pattersaur]

The trade JJM option is terrible,  you wont get nesr the value that he could mean for this team,  you wont get enough picks to offset the players you would lose in FA bia less cap,  and honestly I dont think our GM and scouting department would tuen them into qualtiy players so it would be a high priced QB,  who could very likely turn back into a pumpkin after this year,   and nobody to help him after a year or 2.

I say you tag him and if JJM is ready to rock,  market Sam to a team that will allow him to continue his rebirth,  even if its for less than a more desperate team would be willing to offer,  got to do right by the kid in this instance IMO.

I think tagging Sam is a good option too, but Kirk signed last year for 4 years, $180M w $90 GTD right? Something like that. Signing Darnold to that same deal and letting him continue to ball out for us is absolutely not a "terrible" idea. JJ is still here and can be traded or named starter at any time. Yes it would limit our financial flexibility elsewhere. But holy @#$ we have a QB guys! Right now and he's awesome! Nevermind that half the fanbase is ready to punt him into the sun at the first sign of a bad game for the past month or two, and he continues to play great.

Sign Sam, keep JJM, and wouldn't have to worry about QB position for potentially a long time. To me that's priceless. We might not be a SB contender every single season because of the cap, but with KO, Jefferson, our tackles, our culture, and the QB spot locked up between Sam and JJM, we will be in the hunt most years I'd think.

The only truly terrible option is Sam leaves for nothing and we look like the idiots who let a late-bloomer get away because we tried to galaxy brain the salary cap.

[medaille]

I think the only wrong move is getting rid of JJM. You’re not going to get enough value on a trade (as a 2nd year player coming off an injury that kept him out all season) to overcome the value he would have as insurance in case Darnold gets an injury. I could see letting him season for another 2 years and trading him going into his 4th season. You’d probably get more trade value waiting a year or two. You’d have more certainty on the Darnold situation. You’d have a better backup. The downside is that the draft picks would be deferred, but they’d be at a time when Darnold’s cap hit was starting to have more of an effect.

I’m still a little skeptical of how this team fares if Flores leaves for a HC position. I think the Darnold conversation looks way different if we’re 11-6 or 12-5.

[purplefaithful]

There is just no way they are trading JJM imo.

He is the future, just a matter of when

I think the only way Sam stays is with a tag. He is not going to get a multi-year contract here unless they win their next 4 games.

Of course I'm prone to being 100% wrong too.

[Montana Tom]

First, let’s declare Darnold the “Story of the Year”

“$10 million for Sam Darnold?!” That’s the text I got from an NFL general manager when the Vikings signed Darnold in March, after Kirk Cousins left for the Falcons. Fast-forward nine months, and Darnold is having the best season of his career, leading the Vikings to a 13-2 record. They spent a first-round pick on J.J. McCarthy last spring and Darnold is in for a big payday in March. Despite that, after conversations with a team source, one thing is clear: The Vikings want Darnold back in Minnesota for 2025.

While the original plan was for McCarthy to slowly develop into the starting quarterback while Darnold was there to hold the rookie’s place, McCarthy’s injury changed things. Now, the Vikings have a problem — Darnold has been almost too good (not in a bad way, but in a “this is now complicated” way). McCarthy hasn’t played since August, and realistically he won’t be fully in the mix until spring at the earliest. He’s around the building and with the team constantly but he hasn’t been medically cleared.

So, what’s the move? One option on the table: the franchise tag. It’s pricey (more than $40 million) but it buys time. It would give McCarthy another year to develop from the bench, or at least set up a real competition. (There’s nothing wrong with McCarthy sitting — think about what the Packers did with Jordan Love.) And it would give the Vikings a chance to do a shorter-term deal that’s more cap-friendly, yet also gives Darnold similar money to what he’d get on the open market.

These are good problems to have, yet it’s not an easy call. More importantly, before the organization makes any decision at quarterback they need to get head coach Kevin O’Connell signed up for years to come. They took a gamble by not signing him with two years left on his deal. O’Connell has since orchestrated another winning season, reviving another quarterback in Darnold, and is expected to garner Coach of the Year votes. The expectation is a new deal could happen soon. Otherwise, O’Connell is a lame duck in 2025 and will be in high demand. More good problems in Minnesota.

Source: Russini NY Times

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Can u imagine the crickets on Darnold if he craps the bed the next 2 games? 

All of the hyperbole gone - in an instant. 

I dont think it'll happen and it would be sad if it did. But that is the reality of the world, especially pro sports.

One game left, but he certainly didn't crap the bed last night.  All it was, was a career high in yards, and 3 more TDs.
Now all the marbles next week on SNF.

[purplefaithful]

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/43223670


"He's playing quarterback at a very, very high level," O'Connell said, "and has been for the majority of the season. You can tell by the locker room. You can tell by the way I call plays. I know for us to get to where we want to go, we've got to be aggressive, and we've got to play football in a way that allows us to have our whole offense at our disposal."

Indeed, O'Connell once again relied on Darnold to execute his unconventional but now unsurprising approach to finishing close games. As the Packers cut a 17-point deficit to two points in the fourth quarter, O'Connell did not simply rely on his running game to take time off the clock and/or force the Packers to use their timeouts. Instead, over the course of their final two possessions, Darnold threw on five of the Vikings' seven plays before kneeling down on the final three.

Darnold completed four of those passes for 46 yards, including a 6-yard floater to running back Cam Akers on third-and-2 -- which Akers caught inches from the ground -- to seal the game.

"When guys are packing the box trying to stop the run, I know that [O'Connell] is going to be aggressive if that's the case," Darnold said. "Obviously, there's been times throughout the course of the season where we have tried to run it. So it's not always going to be that way. But whenever he does call a pass in that situation, I'm always prepared for it, and I feel like our guys did a really good job of executing that."

As the locker room cleared out about 30 minutes later, Akers was one of the last players remaining. He was still grinning about what he called an "electric" moment.

"He deserves that," Akers said. "He's put in a lot of work to be here, and we're all behind him -- the players and the staff."

ESPN