Is there?

If anything, wanting to win for ego is where you find the owners MOST aggressive in pursuit of winning.

If anything, I WANT my owners ego to be driving him. That's how you get some damn lunatic like Cohen torching money to get Juan Soto.

And that's mostly my point - MOST owners (again, not all) aren't driven by profit motive or greed. They're driven by ego.

And as sports fans, that's a good thing. We should want our owners writing checks the ledgers can't cash. We should want them underwriting losses on the books to pursue wins on the field.

More do than don't, IMO.

The tag is $41M/yr. I don’t think you can do that if you’re MIN going into ‘25.

I’ve read this thread title to many times, who gives a shit what they do

There is no way that you apply the franchise tag to him at this point. There is no confidence you can trade him for picks and you'd also be tying up your cap that you desperately need due to lack of picks.

They need to replace or re-sign quite a few guys, especially RB Aaron Jones, CB Byron Murphy, CB Stephon Gilmore, DT Jonathan Bullard, FS Camryn Bynum, SS Harrison Smith and DE Patrick Jones II. They have 29 overall free agents.

Yes, thx for putting it so well and filling in the details. MIN can't give him $41M AND re-sign everyone they want to sign. They might be able to offer him, idk, $20M? Not sure I'd go much higher than that after those last two brutally bad performances. Not that I'm a big fan of him, but Broussard said he wouldn't give him more than $15M, and I would tend to agree.

I mean, roughly 20M sounds accurate?

Let's say 7 of those FAs are at least 5m per on average. That's 35m. You have to sign about another 20 guys. If they are bottom of the barrel, you're spending 20m there. That's 55m. OTC estimates 70m in cap space for them. I could see it being a bit higher. That's probably all you're able to do.

I'd say, maybe keep Danny Jones as your backup for JJ and hope JJ pans out and let Darnold walk. Use that 20m to bring in/back a couple of premier guys. Bynum won't be free, he's a top-shelf FS.

Now thats funny

You let him test free agency with intention to match any offer made to him. Nobody is going to give him a huge offer, so you probably sign him for another prove it one year …or a multi year for reasonable $. Then, if it’s me…I trade JJ and hope I can pull the Raiders, Jets or Saints first. Or a mid first and another good pick in mid third for him and try to load up the team around Sam to help him win.

In the paper today---this is not a new situation in Minnesota


The performance from Sam Darnold on Monday night was such a shocking display of lost composure in a big moment that it came with a verdict. That would be there’s no chance Darnold will be back in a Vikings uniform, unless it is years from now as an unemployed 35-year-old and the Purple needs a third-stringer.

This firm belief led to a question: In Minnesota’s decades of big-time team sports — defining that as the pros and the Gophers — who would be the comparable sports figures to Darnold:

A hero for several months, then a sudden crash and departure from our scene?

To be a true Darnold comparison, there first must have been success, and the failure that leads to departure could not have been caused by injury.

Not trusting my memory, I sent a message to 20-some veteran members of the Twin Cities sports media requesting nominees.

One name mentioned a few times was Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the Japanese infielder signed by the Twins for the 2011 season. Certainly, there was the build-up for Nishioka as a potential standout, but there was no success, meaning no Darnold comparison.

Another Twins baseball name — this from their infancy — came to mind for me:

Bill Dailey, a righthanded reliever purchased from Cleveland before Opening Day in 1963. He was phenomenal that season. Organist Willie Peterson was playing “(Won’t You Come Home) Bill Bailey,” and Met Stadium crowds were singing and making it Dailey. Then, Bill’s arm went dead in 1964.


There’s something about the quarterback position and the Vikings since the case can be made that the top comparables to Darnold as Minnesota sports legends-to-be could be a pair of vagabonds who held the position (including one named “Case”):

Jeff George, 1999: Randall Cunningham was failing to repeat his great success from 1998. The Vikings went into Detroit at 2-3 and trailed the Lions 19-0 at halftime, with a Cunningham interception as the only touchdown.

George, signed off the street after being released by Oakland, came in for the second half, ignited the Vikings offense and it became a 25-23 loss. The date was Oct. 17, my birthday, and heading downstairs after the game, I figured this was the present:

Agitating Denny Green with several varieties of the question, “Who is now your starting quarterback?’ And then Green walked into his postgame media session and immediately said George would be the starter the following week vs. San Francisco.

The Sheriff outsmarted us again.

George and the Vikings went 8-2 the rest of the way, beat the Cowboys 27-10 in a playoff opener at the Metrodome, and then went to St. Louis. They lost 49-37, with George notoriously declining to fall on a fumble lying in front of him late in the game.

Most Purple followers were OK with him leaving to make room for young Daunte Culpepper in 2000.

Case Keenum, 2017: Sam Bradford suffered a knee injury and Teddy Bridgewater (coach Mike Zimmer’s favorite) still was recuperating. Keenum, with his third team in five seasons, took over as the quarterback, went 11-3, passed for 3,547 yards and a 22-7 ratio of touchdowns to interceptions.

Our guy Zim seemed to think a lot of Keenum’s success was good luck. The final stroke of that was the “Minneapolis Miracle” — Keenum to Stefon Diggs — in the playoff victory over New Orleans at the Metrodome.

Keenum played poorly along with everyone else in the 38-7 NFC Championship Game loss to Philly.

Goodbye, Case. Hello, Kirk Cousins. And they both had the same number of playoff wins here — Case in one season, Kirk in six.

Here’s the rest of a personal top 10 for semi-Darnold matches among prominent Minnesota sports figures:

3. Scott Bjugstad, North Stars: The Bugler had 43 goals in his second full NHL season (1985-86) and 14 in two seasons after that. Injuries factored into that — but 43, yikes!

4. Crystal Dangerfield, Lynx: WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2020, reserve in 2021, waived in 2022 and well-traveled in the seasons after that.

5. Rick Rickert, Gophers men’s basketball: The 6-foot-11 forward did well in two seasons with the Gophers (2001-03), but he didn’t change basketball as we knew it, which was the hope when he arrived from Duluth East.

6. Frantisek Musil, North Stars: OK, timewise he doesn’t fit with Darnold, but when Louie Nanne went to the trouble of smuggling the Czech defenseman out of Eastern Europe in a trunk in 1986, we did expect more than lots of penalty minutes.

7. Martín Pérez, Twins: His left arm provided the starting ace the Bomba Squad needed in 2019. For three months. Then he couldn’t get your grandson out. But he’s still going today.

8. John Smiley, Twins: Another lefty. Brought in to replace the one-and-done but eternally heroic Jack Morris in the rotation for 1992. Went 16-9, 3.21 ERA, 241 innings — but then he left, without ever living up to his last name in the presence of the Twin Cities media.

9. Bucky Irving, Gophers football: Offered a nice sample as a freshman for a 2021 Gophers team that was 6-3 in the Big Ten: 133 carries, 699 yards. Left for Oregon. Now the main running back for Tampa Bay. Bucky, we hardly knew ye.

10. Russell Shimooka, TV: Came to Twin Cities market as sports anchor for high-flying KARE-11 in 1994 with considerable fanfare. Wasn’t an expert on pronouncing certain Minnesota names. Lasted four months.

Now add your own Darnold comparisons. Many remain available.

I didn’t even get to Larry Calton, the short-term Twins announcer (1974-75) who got punched by Danny Walton for a remark the player considered too personal.

Darnold was SO bad in that game that I don't think you can trot him out next season. I think you lose the team. They know what will happen when they get to the playoffs.

I think you HAVE to go with McCarthy (that's why you drafted him, isn't it?). If Jones will take minimal money, let him stick around. If not, Mullens is a decent back-up.

Why would you tag him? Let him walk.

This thread was started before the playoffs started.

Should we be surprised CP saya to keep him lmao

Ah yes, now it makes sense.