The Athletic: How unprecedented is Sam Darnold’s resurgence in QB Tiers history?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5768278/2024/09/16/vikings-sam-darnold-nfl-field-goals-pick-six/

Very in-depth article about how rare it is for Darnold to have a resurgence like he's currently having:

"First off, Darnold playing well for the Vikings isn’t a shock to everyone. Before Mueller left The Athletic and joined the New Orleans Saints’ front office last month, the former NFL Executive of the Year made a film-based case for Darnold reviving his career in Minnesota.

You can listen to his thoughts, expressed in March, in the audio above. Mueller lauded the Vikings for doing what so many teams fear: moving on from an expensive veteran quarterback (Kirk Cousins) without knowing what the future holds.

That plan included signing Darnold for one year and $10 million, before it was known Minnesota could maneuver in the draft for the since-injured J.J. McCarthy. Mueller loved the plan partly because he thought Darnold’s 2023 tape with San Francisco showed progress.

“For the first time in this kid’s career, he had answers in his backpack to make decisions that helped him make progressions, reads, and he had an offensive line that actually protected him,” Mueller said then. “I think Sam Darnold was in horrible situations before he got to San Francisco, but he played really good in San Francisco in some film that, for me, was easy to decipher his strengths and weaknesses.”