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

[purplefaithful]

I don't blame Sam for whatever decision he makes, he's 27 years old and this will be his first true payday and getting the bag. Trevor Lawrence of all people is making $55 million.....who'd you rather have: Lawrence or Darnold? And why would I take less if I'm Sam? There are no parallels between Korko and Darnold, completely different situations for several reasons.

Which begs the question, would you rather have Love or Darnold at $120mm??

I think the mkt for Sam will be BIG, bigger than anyone could have imagined. 

You can thank Carson Beck and Shedeur for that.

[badgervike]

I don't understand the keep Sam mentality. This competitive rebuild was always predicated on a cheap rookie QB with 2025 as the targeted year to be the year where the plan comes together . We have virtually no draft picks next year and distinct needs in FA. We have virtually no secondary signed for next year. Bynum is going to get paid..either by us or someone else. We still need a big run stuffer and at least 1 IL and that's not coming through our minimal draft picks. For better or worse, the Vikings have a plan and need to stick to it. The team likes JJ..and Dimes can likely be had to compete next year for a $10M Darnold type of deal. If we commit to Darnold, we're not going to be able to fill the current and future gaps in the team going forward.

[MAD GAINZ]

I don't understand the keep Sam mentality.  This competitive rebuild was always predicated on a cheap rookie QB with 2025 as the targeted year to be the year where the plan comes together .  We have virtually no draft picks next year and distinct needs in FA.  We have virtually no secondary signed for next year.  Bynum is going to get paid..either by us or someone else.  We still need a big run stuffer and at least 1 IL and that's not coming through our minimal draft picks.  For better or worse, the Vikings have a plan and need to stick to it.  The team likes JJ..and Dimes can likely be had to compete next year for a $10M Darnold type of deal.  If we commit to Darnold, we're not going to be able to fill the current and future gaps in the team going forward.

One path to keeping Darnold and still taking advantage of JJM's rookie deal is the franchise tag route.

We could use the non-exclusive franchise tag and see if teams are willing to backup the Brink's truck for him. If they do, we'd get at least a first round pick back as compensation.

Or we could do the normal franchise tag for $41 mil. Get one more year to look at Darnold and evaluate JJMs progression.

If we do that, it's almost a given we're trading out of the first round to get a 2nd round pick plus a 3rd or 4th and maybe a late round pick.  If we do that, we could have a 2nd, comp 3rd, 4th, 5th, and maybe a 6th or 7th with just one draft day trade.  We'd up ourselves to 5 picks which is enough to address some of our holes along with whatever money we have left on FA.

It's not as black and white as we want to make it as fans.  We can have our cake and eat it too whether we keep Darnold or not.

[MaroonBells]

I don't understand the keep Sam mentality.  This competitive rebuild was always predicated on a cheap rookie QB.  We have virtually no draft picks next year and distinct needs in FA.  We have virtually no secondary signed for next year.  Bynum is going to get paid..either by us or someone else.  We still need a big run stuffer and at least 1 IL and that's not coming through our minimal draft picks.  For better or worse, the Vikings have a plan and need to stick to it.  The team likes JJ..and Dimes can likely be had to compete next year for a $10M Darnold type of deal.  If we commit to Darnold, we're not going to be able to fill the current and future gaps in the team going forward.

Why not? Give Darnold a 4-year deal, allowing them to keep his 1st year cap hit under $20M, giving the Vikings about $55M left to spend on free agents to go win a Super Bowl in '25. After what should be a pretty successful '25 season, trade him. Acquiring team takes on the bulk of the contract and the Vikings collect massive draft capital in trade.

The last two major QB trades in the NFL (Wilson and Watson) drew five 1st rounders, two 2nd rounders, a 3rd, a 4th and several players. I think that would set up JJ McCarthy and these Vikings on pretty solid footing.

[purplefaithful]

I don't understand the keep Sam mentality.  This competitive rebuild was always predicated on a cheap rookie QB with 2025 as the targeted year to be the year where the plan comes together .  We have virtually no draft picks next year and distinct needs in FA.  We have virtually no secondary signed for next year.  Bynum is going to get paid..either by us or someone else.  We still need a big run stuffer and at least 1 IL and that's not coming through our minimal draft picks.  For better or worse, the Vikings have a plan and need to stick to it.  The team likes JJ..and Dimes can likely be had to compete next year for a $10M Darnold type of deal.  If we commit to Darnold, we're not going to be able to fill the current and future gaps in the team going forward.

Why not? Give Darnold a 4-year deal, allowing them to keep his 1st year cap hit under $20M, giving the Vikings about $55M left to spend on free agents to go win a Super Bowl in '25. After what should be a pretty successful '25 season, trade him. Acquiring team takes on the bulk of the contract and the Vikings collect massive draft capital in trade.

The last two major QB trades in the NFL (Wilson and Watson) drew five 1st rounders, two 2nd rounders, a 3rd, a 4th and several players. I think that would set up JJ McCarthy and these Vikings on pretty solid footing.

Yes, letting Darnold leave w/out the Vikings getting another year of service or some reward? 

It's just organizational incompetence. 

This QB draft is weak and lots of QB needy teams. KAM is probably whistling a happy tune walking into work everyday.

[JimmyinSD]

Why not? Give Darnold a 4-year deal, allowing them to keep his 1st year cap hit under $20M, giving the Vikings about $55M left to spend on free agents to go win a Super Bowl in '25. After what should be a pretty successful '25 season, trade him. Acquiring team takes on the bulk of the contract and the Vikings collect massive draft capital in trade.

The last two major QB trades in the NFL (Wilson and Watson) drew five 1st rounders, two 2nd rounders, a 3rd, a 4th and several players. I think that would set up JJ McCarthy and these Vikings on pretty solid footing.

lets assume that things dont go as planned,  maybe JJ misses an extended amount of time and our O sputters,  maybe SD doesnt play to the same level and the interest isnt there?  Now you are stuck paying SD, you dont have the draft picks you thought you would, and you have severely limited your ability to maximize on the cap savings JJMs rookie deal provides... you have essentially closed your window that you worked so hard to create. (especially if you defer some of SDs new money into future years, can kicking is not a sound way to build a future,  it only opens a small one for the current time.)

the tag and possibly trade option IMO is the best one for the team long term, meaning next 3-5 years.

[MaroonBells]

lets assume that things dont go as planned,  maybe JJ misses an extended amount of time and our O sputters,  maybe SD doesnt play to the same level and the interest isnt there?  Now you are stuck paying SD, you dont have the draft picks you thought you would, and you have severely limited your ability to maximize on the cap savings JJMs rookie deal provides... you have essentially closed your window that you worked so hard to create. (especially if you defer some of SDs new money into future years, can kicking is not a sound way to build a future,  it only opens a small one for the current time.)

the tag and possibly trade option IMO is the best one for the team long term, meaning next 3-5 years.

Maybe an asteroid strikes the planet and it's all rendered moot. Maybe we tag and trade Darnold and JJ just isn't what we thought he'd be. He has continuing knee issues or he just can't play to the level Darnold has this season. I mean we can do this all day. 

Bird in the hand and all that.

[pattersaur]

I don't understand the keep Sam mentality.  This competitive rebuild was always predicated on a cheap rookie QB with 2025 as the targeted year to be the year where the plan comes together .  We have virtually no draft picks next year and distinct needs in FA.  We have virtually no secondary signed for next year.  Bynum is going to get paid..either by us or someone else.  We still need a big run stuffer and at least 1 IL and that's not coming through our minimal draft picks.  For better or worse, the Vikings have a plan and need to stick to it.  The team likes JJ..and Dimes can likely be had to compete next year for a $10M Darnold type of deal.  If we commit to Darnold, we're not going to be able to fill the current and future gaps in the team going forward.

This was almost undoubtedly Plan A... but then they started playing the games and that 4 of diamonds we thought we had is actually the Ace of Clubs, and the plan (should have, IMO) changed.

[medaille]

The window doesn’t close the exact second Darnold signs. We’ve already reset our cap. We’d just have a longer window by 2-3 years with JJM and we’d get $30M extra per year in those 2-3 years.

[badgervike]

I had to chuckle. I went and looked at Dimes draft profile. The NFL QB comparison on his scouting report? Sam Darnold.. (and Tannehill)

https://tdscouting.com/scouting-report-daniel-jones