ESPN Analyst Confident the Vikings Will Sign Sam Darnold to Lucrative Contract Extension

Call it the “offseason” if you want. But in reality, the Minnesota Vikings never stop. During six months of the year, they play 17 regular season games, then hopefully make the postseason playoff bracket.

The next six months, they spend replacing select players, coaches and executives with new blood at all three levels. Some years, the changes are more significant than others, but it’s an offseason process that the NFL has mastered, and one that has football fans entranced 365 days of the.

2025 is worth watching for many reasons. But without a doubt, most Minnesota Vikings fans and pundits are yet again paying closest attention to what head coach Kevin O’Connell & Co are going to do with the unknowns at quarterback.

After 2024 No. 10 overall draft pick JJ McCarthy inconspicuously tore his meniscus during the first preseason game of his NFL career, O’Connell had no choice but to hand the 2024 QB keys to 2018 No. 3 overall draft pick Sam Darnold, who responded by driving KOC’s newly stocked Vikings offense right to a super-sized pay raise for 2025 and beyond.

ESPN NFL expert sees Sam Darnold back in purple

But where will he get said raise, and how much will it be? There are a lot of opinions on that question, flying around NFL circles that include fans, media and team executives. But one very informed opinion landed at ESPN, recently when plugged-in, data-driven NFL analyst Ben Solak confidently projected that Darnold would be back in purple on a brand new long-term deal, before the offseason reaches free agency in March.

For two-straight offseasons now, the Minnesota Vikings’ biggest question mark has revolved around the quarterback position. This time last year, we were arguing whether they would ink Kirk Cousins long term or move on via free agency and/or the NFL Draft.

Minnesota Vikings face same QB questions… just different QBs

Of course, Kirk contract talks got too pricey, so Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah bowed out. After Kirk signed with Atlanta, Minnesota shifted their free agent focus to a possible bridge QB, to pair with the rookie quarterback they had not yet drafted, signing a 27-year-old Sam Darnold for one year, $10 million. The next month, Kwesi & Co moved up one spot to take JJ McCarthy with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 draft.

To Sam Darnold’s credit, he grabbed the keys of a luxurious Minnesota Vikings offense from KOC — fully stocked with elite features that a top WR duo in Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, along with an upgrade at RB in Aaron Jones and a recovering TJ Hockenson… for 2/3 of the season — and drove it to one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, even if it did end in an abrupt Wild Card crash vs the LA Rams.

Now, Darnold enters free agency yet again. This time, however, he has a completely rehabilitated quarterback image. Solak isn’t the only one who expects the former king of USC campus to strike it big this offseason. Most NFL cap experts believe Sam Darnold will get a three or four year, in the neighborhood of $35-$45 million per season.

Will the Minnesota Vikings really pay Sam Darnold?

Knowing how much Kwesi and the Minnesota Vikings front office was determined to stay under the ceiling they had set for Kirk Cousins last season, I cannot see them proving Ben Solak correct. Inking Darnold to a four-year extension worth $160 million would lock them into the same kind of salary cap constraints that they refused this time last year, when they let Kirk walk. Ben’s colleague, ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano, agrees with me.

Maybe it’s Daniel Jones, maybe it’s someone else. But I expect the Vikings to again find a cheaper bridge option, just in case McCarthy isn’t ready to take the reins, then trust in Kevin O’Connell to make due with whatever situation he is given, until his QB of the future proves he can handle the NFL moment. But… I’ve been wrong before and I will be wrong again.