Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports activities.
The Minnesota Vikings’ subsequent offseason domino, after extending Kevin O’Connell’s contract and welcoming again defensive coordinator Brian Flores, is figuring out the QB1 plan for 2025.
Kevin O’Connell Would possibly Have Spilled the Beans
Minnesota can trip with Sam Darnold, extending his keep this offseason and stopping him from testing free company. It may well additionally discover a franchise tag-and-trade with Darnold, hoping to nab a draft choose for his providers whereas limiting his private choices and say within the matter. Or the Vikings can let Darnold depart in free company and roll with J.J. McCarthy for the long run.
Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Pictures.
However per a current O’Connell quote, the younger skipper would possibly’ve already predicted the long run: letting Darnold enterprise to free company with no extension or franchise tag-and-trade.
“Look, you guys know how I feel about Sam. He is a guy that we identified last year as somebody who could come in and be successful. And really no matter where he was at before he arrived in his quarterback journey, it was about maximizing our time together,” O’Connell stated about Darnold final week.
Brad Rempel-Imagn Pictures.
“And I think we did that, and I think it was a very special year for Sam. And what that earned him is, everybody in our league now thinks he’s a bona fide legitimate starting quarterback and can win a lot of football games. He won 14 of them.”
That was excessive reward for the 2024 QB1. However then O’Connell bought to the chase: “So he’s earned the right to be a free agent, but we will continue to have ongoing dialogue and discussions with him and his representation.”
O’Connell’s phrases — incomes the suitable to be a free agent — is a cat-out-of-the-bag revelation. It’s as if he already is aware of the choice to no contract extension is blunt-force free company.
Brad Rempel-Imagn Pictures.
Earlier than Darnold melted down within the season’s ultimate two video games final yr, some believed the Vikings would franchise tag-and-trade him, maybe netting a elaborate 2nd-Spherical choose or one thing within the neighborhood. His late-season faceplant didn’t enhance the commerce theories, and it may be a foregone conclusion that Darnold walks.
Nowhere in any respect within the Vikings’ orbit has anybody talked about the notion of a franchise tag-and-trade. That complete idea would possibly’ve been media- and fan-driven.
Minnesota quarterback J.J. McCarthy addressed the media from the TCO Efficiency Heart throughout 2024 Coaching Camp. July 26, 2024. The Vikings drafted McCarthy in Spherical 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft with the tenth total choose. He takes over for Kirk Cousins.
What’s extra, if Darnold departs in free company, that transfer will issue into the league’s advanced compensatory draft choose formulation. A comp choose for Darnold’s exit may be extra useful than a franchise tag-and-trade.
It doesn’t matter what, the Vikings appear on the point of handing the franchise to McCarthy — not Darnold — which was the plan all alongside when normal supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah drafted him 10 months in the past.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his each day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The present options visitors, evaluation, and opinion on all issues associated to the purple group, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates again to 1996. Listed responsible pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doorways (the band). He follows the NBA as carefully because the NFL.
All statistics supplied by Professional Soccer Reference / Stathead; all contractual info supplied by OverTheCap.com.
