Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell came away with AP NFL Coach of the Year honors on Thursday at the NFL Awards thanks to a 14-3 season.
A significant amount of Minnesota’s success can be attributed to the bounceback season from QB Sam Darnold, who’s set to hit free agency in 2025. Darnold will command a significant raise and the Vikings have first-round pick J.J. McCarthy waiting in the wings.
Despite their situation, O’Connell raved about Darnold’s season and didn’t rule out bringing him back for another season.
“Look, you guys know how I feel about Sam,” O’Connell said, via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. “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. 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 [in 2024].”
“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.”
Darnold, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Jets back in 2018. He was in the final year of a four-year, $30.370 million rookie contract when he was traded to the Panthers.
Carolina exercised Darnold’s fifth-year option for 2022 after acquiring him from New York. He made a base salary of $18.858 million in 2022 under the option.
Darnold was an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career when he signed a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the 49ers in 2023. He joined the Vikings this past offseason on another one-year deal.
In 2024, Darnold appeared in all 17 games for the Vikings and completed 66.2 percent of his pass attempts for 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He added 67 carries for 212 yards and a touchdown.
We’ll have more on Darnold and the Vikings as the news is available.
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