Vikings’ Sam Darnold Predicted To Return To Where It All Started In Free Agency

Free agency spells the final reveal of the much-anticipated fate of numerous big-name players across the league.

However, none of those players have quite as much anticipation surrounding their future as Minnesota Vikings‘ quarterback, Sam Darnold.

Prior to week 18, it seemed like an almost sure thing that Darnold would re-sign with the Vikings, perhaps to the tune of as much as $50+ million per year.

But disastrous back-to-back showings in the last week of the regular season and the first weekend of the playoffs, in which Minnesota were eliminated in decisive fashion by the Los Angeles Rams, 27-9, brought substantially more hesitation to the idea of re-signing the former 3rd overall pick to a hefty extension.

What Will The Vikings Do With Sam Darnold?

Whilst many have projected that the Vikings could well tag-and-trade Darnold, the $40 million tag-line for a player that’s had only one successful full season as a starter could limit the draft compensation they could expect in return.

And even then, there can often be large gaps between the general perception of a player’s value v.s. his actual value amongst teams.

The media believed for long periods that former Chicago Bears quarterback, Justin Fields, could go for as much as a first round pick back in March 2024, for example, only for the actual price to be substantially lower, with the former Buckeye ending up on the Pittsburgh Steelers for the price of just a sixth round pick.

Darnold Predicted To Go Back To The New York Jets In Free Agency

Darnold has been rumored to end up here, there, and everywhere since his dismal end to the 2024 season. One place, however, that has hardly been mentioned, is his former home, the New York Jets.

Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon predicts that Sam Darnold will, in a surprise twist, go back home to the Jets this offseason, as the Vikings move forward with last year’s 10th o

“Sam Darnold, the league’s sixth-highest-rated passer from this past season, is slated to hit free agency, as is future Hall of Famer Russell Wilson. Both quarterbacks could get away from their incumbent teams due to the presence of younger, intriguing signal-callers in Minnesota (2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy) and Pittsburgh (2021 first-round pick Justin Fields).

My February prediction? The Vikes let Darnold get away in favor of McCarthy. The Steelers stick with Wilson. Cousins goes to the Raiders, Darnold goes back to the Jets in place of Aaron Rodgers”.

The New York Jets would be a pretty shocking destination for Darnold, even though the general manager and head coach who once traded him to the Panthers, Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh, are no longer with the team.

The franchise owner, Woody Johnson, still remains in charge, and the Jets still lie in a myriad of dysfunction, having just cut Aaron Rodgers in a move that cost them $49 million in dead cap space.

With all that dead cap space, it could be hard to fathom the Jets dishing out solid money for their 2018 first rounder. Having said that, if the contract is spaced out over multiple years, they could lower the cap hit in 2025 and spread the damage out across the other years of the deal.

For a roster that is actually very solid and could be ready to win now, Darnold may well be a viable option at QB. Only question is, can the USC alum bring himself to return to the place that once spurned him, and return to the gruesome air of the cutthroat New York media.