Sam Has To Mess The Bed

Ppattersaur wrote:
... and bounce back from it in order to consider extending him.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently-- Would it be smart to extend Darnold now to something shorter and more manageable, versus potentially trying to outbid other teams for him on the open market in the offseason?

I've seen the question brought up here and my thought has been, let's just wait. There's no rush, it's only been 4 games, JJM looked great... It makes sense. But if he'd sign today for something like 2 years, $40M with an understanding we may trade him after year 1, would that be such a bad thing? It could wind up looking like a huge bargain as soon as a month from now. For reference, Baker had one good season in Tampa and signed a 3-year, $100M extension this past offseason. In other words, a two-year deal might be off the table come March. So there are pros to doing a deal now for sure.

But I realized if we signed him today and then the next week he has a dud, there would be absolute panic in the streets. It would be a very uncomfortable wait until the next game and then who knows what would happen. It's too scary to think about.

So I've decided I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other-- extend Sam soon or wait it out-- But I do feel like we HAVE to see Sam have a bad game (turnovers, lose, sacks, the whole 9) and come back the next week looking like Our Sam in order for me to fully have faith. Once he does that, I'm at peace with any decision. I should note I say this all as a huge, antsy, JJ McCarthy fan who would be excited to roll with him as QB1 next year as well.

How about settling for a bad 1st half & a comeback victory…!?  ;) :angel:

StickierBuns wrote:

From ESPN:

The Purple Persuasion
@TPPSkol
"At the very least he's getting the Baker Mayfield contract if he continues to play this way." @TampaBayTre
on the #Vikings QB Sam Darnold's next deal on This is Football with @bykevinclark
.
Sikkema added that the 1 or 2 year deal "doesn't exist" anymore, Darnold will be signing for a long term deal.

"If he continues to play this way," is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. I said the same thing in the OP though so I agree with Tampa Tre.

To the people saying we won't be able to afford Sam this offseason if he plays well-- I agree. That's why the window to maybe have a chance at signing him is now. I still would need to see more before I did that if I were Minnesota, but they wouldn't be doing their jobs if they weren't having these talks, imo.

To me, that looks like an insulting contract to Darnold.  Why insult a guy who’s playing well and offer him a contract that he won’t accept?  If anything, wait until the end of the season and pay him what he's worth.  I think if Darnold waits until the end of the season, he’s probably getting the same contract that all the other guys (except Mayfield for some reason) have been getting.  He’ll be getting something in that Danny Dimes/Trevor Lawrence region.  If I was Darnold, I certainly wouldn’t accept any extension that could trade me somewhere.  I’d want full control over picking the team I went to.

I think the best chance that Darnold has for staying here is if JJM’s knee looks worse than better around league season start in march.  None of the good teams offered him a contract roughly what he’s worth and he doesn’t want to go to a bad team.  I could see him agreeing to another year for like $42ish in another prove it year.

Yep, Darnold will want control on who he signs with and to your point, why would he sign for less than $50 MM?? . That would put him 10th right now on the list of highest paid QBs. If he keeps playing like this all year, he'll have shown more than Jordan Love has who is currently tied for 2nd highest salary. He's not going to require a 'show me' year for $42 MM, lol.

Darnold is not resigning with Minnesota.....I know this is hard for some to grasp. It'll be a long, LONG shot I should say. Never say never I suppose.

well if we really wanted him to stay as the fallback plan for 2025 in case JJM cant go... there is the tag route,  42 mill gets a franchise tag,  36M would likely cover a transition tag.  These are both 1 year deals that are out of his control which is why his camp would possibly be open to a 2 year extension at slightly less with more guaranteed,  especially if you dont wait until the year is over.

everybody keeps gushing about KOCs system and play calling,  I would imagine that there are GMs out there that are assuming a big part of SDs success is the system and his surrounding cast, and would maybe not be backing up the 50 mill bus as quick as some assume.

And how many teams need a new QB for next year? Several. It just takes 2 teams to be interested in Darnold to jack up his yearly salary. No trade compensation, only a salary. No risk of drafting a guy. He's going to be attractive.

Like I said, if the Vikings want him,  the tag route is always a way to ensure a 1 year rental,  or if Team SD want a little more they could take a 2 year extension with more guaranteed money, with the Vikings having outs,  it doesnt need to mean that he cant have SOME veto power to a trade,  but really its not like the Vikings are without cards in this game.  Of course if he were to sign a monster deal elsewhere, that would maybe get us a compensatory pick,  but I would suspect that would get negated by any free agent splashes we would be making,  so I would feel better with SD on a tradeable deal,  that way we would be more assured of compensation for when he leaves.

From ESPN:

The Purple Persuasion
@TPPSkol
"At the very least he's getting the Baker Mayfield contract if he continues to play this way." @TampaBayTre
on the #Vikings QB Sam Darnold's next deal on This is Football with @bykevinclark
.
Sikkema added that the 1 or 2 year deal "doesn't exist" anymore, Darnold will be signing for a long term deal.

Darnold keeps playing well, he will have plenty of interest and get a bag. There are several teams in need of a qb. It would be a tough decision. On the one hand, you have a qb that has proven he can sustain his performance and open up possibilities. I get the back and forth on JJM but at some point they have to see what he can do. No matter how much people what if the situation (what if he isn't ready, he needs more time, etc), the situation still has to play out. Hopefully Sam will continue to ball out. It is a great fit with KOC and Darnold. Good for him.

Regardless of what happens, it's amazing to me as a Vikings fan to even have this discussion. It is not exactly in our history to be well set up at QB, especially in both the short and long term. Just look at our situation compared to 7 months ago when we let Cousins walk and had no good option to start at QB, let alone two.

I'm pinching myself at how well this offseason has worked out all around.

Darnold got signed with the idea that he has the opportunity make the best of a one year contract and get himself PAID next offseason, but not by the Vikings.

I’d be absolutely FLOORED if the front office went backwards and signed Darnold to a massive deal. The only way that happens is if they don’t like what they see in JJM, and every bit of rhetoric coming out of the Vikings camp refutes that idea.

Even if Darnold somehow wins us a Super Bowl (which I still believe is nearly impossible), he gets the Nick Foles/Jeff Hostetler treatment.

SFVikingFan wrote:
Regardless of what happens, it's amazing to me as a Vikings fan to even have this discussion. It is not exactly in our history to be well set up at QB, especially in both the short and long term.  Just look at our situation compared to 7 months ago when we let Cousins walk and had no good option to start at QB, let alone two.

I'm pinching myself at how well this offseason has worked out all around.

Exactly. Last spring we had no QB. We called up Harbaugh to see if he might want to trade Justin Herbert. Imagine one of the NFL's great young QBs running this offense. Well that's what we have now. Sam Darnold is 1 year older than Herbert. He's younger than Joe Burrow and Josh Allen. And right now at least he's better than all of them. Oh and lest I forget, we also drafted JJ McCarthy. 

It's like we just won the lottery, the Powerball Mega Millions Jackpot, and we're fighting over what to do with all the cash.

I think you might be seeing him messing the bed a little today. He and the WRs haven't seemed to be on the same page very much today. Hoping he can bounce back or at least hang on for the win.

Is it messy enough?

Play calling has also been atrocious. Every play is either a run for little to no yards or a long pass. Hard to get into a rhythm that way.

Kicking out of the end zone is on KOC.

SFVikingFan wrote:
Play calling has also been atrocious. Every play is either a run for little to no yards or a long pass. Hard to get into a rhythm that way.

Jones makes the running game work. Chandler isn’t a feature back.

SFVikingFan wrote:
Play calling has also been atrocious. Every play is either a run for little to no yards or a long pass. Hard to get into a rhythm that way.

Definitely, KOCs play calling was suspect way to often today. Bradbury was getting worked again today but they still kept trying to run inside on first downs.

JimmyinSD wrote:

Definitely,  KOCs play calling was suspect way to often today. Bradbury was getting worked again today but they still kept trying to run inside on first downs.

They kept running up the gut because the Jets gave up big yards previously between the tackles.

JimmyinSD wrote:

Definitely,  KOCs play calling was suspect way to often today. Bradbury was getting worked again today but they still kept trying to run inside on first downs.

We were picking up good yards with Jones up the middle until he got hurt.  Why was it suspect?  Chandler looked tentative running between the tackles and Darnold was late or missed some open WRs.  Jets have a good defense.   Why is it KOC's fault when players don't execute to the fans liking?  Big plays were there.

MAD GAINZ wrote:

We were picking up good yards with Jones up the middle until he got hurt.  Why was it suspect?  Chandler looked tentative running between the tackles and Darnold was late or missed some open WRs.  Jets have a good defense.   Why is it KOC's fault when players don't execute to the fans liking?  Big plays were there.

Because after Jones went out, Chandler up the middle wasn't working, and Darnold constantly throwing (and missing) deep, there didn't seem to be any in-game adjustments.

Just about cost us the game.

It's funny fans are pissed at our HC for not calling plays that worked when the Vikings offensive players had plenty of miscues. 

Darnold didn't play well.  Chandler isn't as good as Aaron Jones.  A very good OL had some penalties that wiped out Chandler's only big run and put us in some long down and distances at times.

Is Darnold untouchable now?

Damn,

In spite of a rough day, I wish we would have found a way to win and get to 5 & 0 vs a Jets team giving us their best shot :cool: