When quarterback Sam Darnold joined the Minnesota Vikings this offseason, it has sparked a lot of discussion about both his and the team's immediate future.
Going into the 2024 season, Darnold is penciled in to be the starting quarterback. The Vikings do have rookie J.J. McCarthy waiting in the wings, but head coach Kevin O'Connell is going to stay very patient with his development. The Vikings are in this for the long haul and won't be putting pressure on the rookie signal caller.
That leaves Darnold, who joins his fourth team in seven years, as the starter. Can he take the next step?
Sam Darnold has former NFL MVP believing
Earlier this month, I talked about Darnold potentially being really good on The Real Forno Show and the dilemma the Vikings would face if he took off in a similar way to 2004 Drew Brees.
"I want to relate it to a scenario that happened with the Chargers 2001 NFL draft. They had the first overall pick and hey weren't 100% sold on Michael Vick. Now, in today's day and age, I think everybody would have been sold on Michael Vick the player, but 2001 it was a very, very different league so they traded back to fifth overall and they got a decent package and then they took LaDanian Tomlinson and with the first pick in the second round, they took Drew Brees. And Brees we know and he's going to end up being in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but at that point, Brees his first couple years he was okay and very up and down. And in the 2004 NFL Draft, they had the first overall pick again they took Eli Manning, traded for Philip Rivers, got extra draft capital from the Giants and the rest is history. So 2004 Drew Brees is in a contract year, balls out and I believe he made the Pro Bowl so now the Chargers are looking at themselves okay. We've got essentially the first overall pick here because that's the pick they had Rivers was taken for do we go with Rivers or do we keep Drew Brees after he just absolutely balled out and he looks to be like a legitimate quarterback. What do we do? And I think that scenario is something that you can kind of look at for a comparison point if darnold just all of the sudden takes off because he just turned 27 years old."
The idea being that Darnold can finally put it together isn't a crazy one. In fact, it's semi-probable due to the nature of the position, his young age at just 26 and his immense talent. ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. still lauds over his evaluation of Darnold from the 2018 NFL Draft class.
One other analyst is former NFL MVP and Vikings quarterback Rich Gannon. He spoke to Purple Insider's Matthew Coller about Darnold and he has a lot of faith in the young quarterback.
“My overall assessment of Sam Darnold is that he’s an extremely talented player. He’s very athletic, he’s got good feet, he’s got a big-time arm, he can make all the throws,” Gannon said. “He’s a young guy. He’s 26 years old. It’s stupid that he’s been in the league six years and he’s 26 years old.”
Gannon has quite an interesting connection with Darnold. He spoke both with Darnold and his head coach on the Carolina Panthers Matt Rhule. One of the things he discussed with Rhule was what he described as "the talk."
“That was my comment to Matt Rhule, I said, ‘if he doesn’t understand and can’t figure out the importance of ball security then he’s never going to survive in this league,’” Gannon said. “I don’t care who he’s playing with, who the play caller is, any of that.”
That is an area where Darnold has struggled. He has thrown 56 interceptions with just 63 touchdowns. That's not exactly a great ratio for a quarterback, especially when the higher-end starters are getting closer to 5:1. The one good thing with Darnold is there is noticeable improvement across the board. His last 217 dropbacks have seen just five turnover-worthy plays compared to 49 over his first 1,833 dropbacks.
Since Gannon was in the same boat as Darnold back with the Kansas City Chiefs before he won an MVP with the Oakland Raiders. Having been in the same position, Gannon has the rare ability to relate to the situation.
“If I get that opportunity and we start the season and we get off to a good start then I ain’t coming out, that’s my mindset,” Gannon said. “They don’t have to play JJ if we’re 7-2 then this is going to be my opportunity. If you’re Sam that’s all you want. An opportunity to show people that I’m a different player and I’ve matured and developed into a quarterback who can be trusted. Reliable, dependable and consistent."
Can Darnold become the player that everyone thinks he can be? That is the question we will all be asking over then next few months. The answer? It's certainly up in the air and yes is a likely answer.
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