Vikings Hopeful To Retain Sam Darnold In 2025?

According to Jonathan Jones, there’s a leaguewide belief that the Vikings are hopeful they will be able to keep QB Sam Darnold in 2025 and will make an effort to re-sign him. 

However, Jones says the team still sees first-round QB J.J. McCarthy as the quarterback of the future, so there’s a balancing act Minnesota has to pull off.

“It could wind up being a Jordan Love-type situation,” one AFC executive told Jones.

Jones notes if Darnold is back on a new contract, the Vikings will have to manage the situation with McCarthy, although the plan before he got hurt had always been to take it slow. 

Regarding Darnold’s stock entering free agency in 2025, Jones polled multiple league sources who believed his next contract would be at least $25 million per year, and how things finish for Darnold and the Vikings could push that value even higher. 

Jones adds one source told him Darnold plans to be selective and will heavily weigh the situation he’s signing into to try and avoid a repeat of what happened early in his career with the Jets and Panthers. 

Minnesota hasn’t had any contract talks with Darnold yet as the Vikings try to keep all their focus on this season, but the team has not ruled out the idea of bringing him back. 

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 this offseason when he signed a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the 49ers. He joined the Vikings this past offseason on another one-year deal. 

In 2024, Darnold has appeared in 14 games for the Vikings and completed 67.6 percent of his passes for 3,530 yards, 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He’s added 56 carries for 194 yards and a touchdown. 

We’ll have more on Darnold and the Vikings quarterback situation as the news is available.