Vikings Make $160 Million Commitment to QB Sam Darnold

The Minnesota Vikings saw their surprise season implode over the final two weeks of the season and playoffs, losing to the Detroit Lions in the season finale to become the 14-win wild card team in NFL history then falling flat in the playoffs. The Vikings lost to the Los Angeles Rams 29-7 in the wild card round, sending them into a long offseason filled with questions. The chief among those is the future of quarterback Sam Darnold, who took over for injured rookie J.J. McCarthy and turned in the best season of his career. Darnold has come to the end of his one-year deal, but ESPN’s Benjamin Solak predicts the Vikings will make a big financial commitment to the veteran quarterback and explore trades for McCarthy to one of the NFL’s quarterback-hungry teams.

I really, truly believe the Vikings will extend Darnold,” Solak wrote. “They have the room for something in the Daniel Jones neighborhood-four years, $160 million is probably optimal if they can get Darnold to sign before another team offers him a blockbuster deal. Depending on the size of the contract, they’ll either keep McCarthy or quietly trade him ahead of a weak quarterback draft class and see if a desperate team bites.”

Giving Darnold a new contract would mark a major shift for the Vikings, who used the No. 10 overall pick to land McCarthy last season. His cap hit is less than $5 million for the coming season, giving the Vikings the ability to fill out the roster in other areas if they moved forward with the 22-year-old signal-caller instead of Darnold.