As the 2025 NFL season approaches, one of the biggest storylines revolves around Sam Darnold’s future with the Minnesota Vikings.
Despite his standout performance in the 2024 NFL season, which earned him a Pro Bowl selection, Darnold might not even hit the free-agent market. The Vikings could potentially secure him long-term by either negotiating a new contract or using the franchise tag on the USC product.
Is this a realistic option? Can the Vikings hold on to Darnold for another year, even with JJ McCarthy ready to go? At the 2025 NFL Combine, GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah shared the team’s thoughts on Darnold’s future, including how they’re assessing his performance, particularly his final two losses compared to the 16 games that came before them.
- Sam Darnold’
I was telling my staff, if I could’ve created a brain teaser or experiment to think through, that would’ve been a tough one — a Pro Bowl quarterback who wins all those games, then loses to two teams twice,” Adofo-Mensah said. “That’s really been the core of our offseason, considering the situation as a whole. We’re not overemphasizing those two games, but we’re not ignoring them either. He played a lot of great football for us in his first year with the system, so we expect even more in the future. We’re excited about what Sam could bring — whatever that turns out to be.”
“It’s a challenging process,” he continued. “We want to make sure we keep emphasizing how proud we are of what he did for us. We’re proud of the team’s efforts. It didn’t end as we wanted, but a lot of positive things happened. We’re continuing to build the foundation for the team we aim to become, and we’ll keep moving forward.”
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