NFL insider makes surprising prediction where Sam Darnold will play in 2025
For the first 16 games of the regular season, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback played like an MVP candidate, throwing 35 touchdown passes while leading the team to a 14-2 record. Darnold’s teammates even hoisted him onto their shoulders in the locker room after he threw for 377 yards and three touchdowns in Minnesota’s 27-25 win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 17.
Everything seemed right in the Vikings’ world then, but it immediately came crashing down.
In the last game of the regular season to determine the No. 1 seed in the NFC, Darnold and the Vikings were pummeled by NFC North rival Detroit Lions, 31-9. Darnold completed under 44% of his passes, going 18-for-41 for 166 yards and no touchdowns. It got worse a week later as Minnesota was decimated by the Los Angeles Rams, 27-9, in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs. Darnold was sacked nine times, going 25-for-40 for 245 passing yards, with one touchdown and one interception.
This dramatic late-season collapse has raised serious questions about Darnold’s future. After transforming from a career backup into a potential franchise quarterback through the first four months of the season, his final two weeks have muddied his free-agent outlook. Once staring down a major payday comparable to top-tier NFL quarterbacks, it’s now up in the air where he will land and what kind of contract he will get after signing a one-year, $10 million deal with the Vikings for 2024.
