We forgot to mention the cheating

And Flacco is the only one of those 3 who wasn't playing at an MVP level leading up to the playoff run.

You just don't carry a QB through the post-season anymore. Not in the AFC where all these premier QBs live. You can go steal a game against a superior QB with that but you're not gonna steal 3.

It’s funny that Mahomes has only lost in the Super Bowl
To another elite QB. Which wasn’t even his
Fault. His Super Bowl wins were against good, but not elite guys. You could argue his AFC playoff games have been tougher games because the opposing QBs have been better overall

Obviously the move now is to franchise him and see if some poverty franchise will bite and trade a haul for him. If not, you see if he can replicate his regular season success for a year and maybe step up a little more come the postseason. It was his first year as a full time starter in several years, and you can't disregard the season he had.

Even though we all know he'll never win shit, there are plenty of teams that would gladly take what the Vikings just had. Someone will trade for him and pay him, and if not, you ride it out for another year and switch to McCarthy once it's obvious the experiment is over.

They had exceptional talent to build around on defense. Parsons and diggs are elite. Even with all the injuries and dinosaur zimmer they were still a really good defense at the end of the season. Back in the day they had a stellar OL. If McCarthy built that team around a running game instead of dak and he didn’t absolutely shit the bed last year… this is not a Super Bowl team but you can’t tell me the makeup of their team isn’t different from the Vikings other than a better qb (who I agree is not top shelf).

If Darnold still has a locker this morning they are doing it wrong.

Not enough discussion on how bad Jalen hurts has been. He has been brutally bad and you can see it in his WRs faces. And kinda like the vikes with their insane weapons, how you gonna struggle to put up 100 yards with aj brown, Devonta and goedert against teams begging you to throw the ball?

How did Hurts play the game of his life against us?

Good lord he had one of the best Superbowl games of all-time.

Eh I don’t get people throwing him under the bus. He isn’t some huge contract guy or some egomaniac. He’s a backup qb paid like a backup who went way beyond expectations. They should be grateful they had a mostly joyful season even though they were supposed to be miserable.

Darnolds only fault was that he gave the fans hope. He was too successful early on and it’s hard to fault somebody for that.

I think it was the Joe Flacco effect where decent enough QBs can string together an insane playoff run every once in a while. He was definitely terrific against us.

I haven't watched much Vikes. Did dudes just not blitz them? Was this a ****ing surprise? Because as bad as Darnold was - he was very bad - I didn't see a ton of TE leaks, RB in the flat, comebacks, the hot route shit.

I mean, the ones that were there he missed, so whatever, but I don't think O'Connell did a ton to help him.

I'm here for the jokes, and there will be a lot, so this is GREAT.

**** the Cowbtiches.

Yeah, I don't get it. Dude hasn't thrown for 200 yards in over a month? I think I have that right, my God what are they doing?

And it's not like he can't, he had a great game in the Super Bowl against us.

There has to be an injury that Sirianni is hiding (like the ankle earlier in the year) or something. If not, it's time for a change at coach.

Barkley likes the bus driver/passenger analogy.

I just read that darnold was sacked 6 times in the first half and most were well beyond 3 seconds. First second and third, darnold played very shitty.

I’m a big fan of KOC and think he was handcuffed by a bad qb. I also don’t know that he did him any favors. In some ways it reminded me of the tyreek days where defenses bracketed him and we only had speed guys. Couple of critical short yardage plays last night where I seem to remember everyone being way downfield apart for maybe a tight end running underneath.

That the Vikings won 14 games is some kind of miracle.

I said this during the Lions game.

"Coach of the Year, my ass..."

O'Connell left Darnold out there to die in the two biggest games of their season and was THOROUGHLY out-coached in both games.

He'll get his win this year and I hope to never hear his name among the actual championship caliber coaches in the league again. Because he got exposed down the stretch.

There might just be some McDaniel to him. He's a guy who can look awfully sharp when things are going his way but he doesn't seem to have much of a plan when he gets punched in the mouth.

I'm sure I'll get shit on for it, but this is another reason I don't think Andy gets the praise he should.

Alot of these coaches are good coaches when things go their way or when they have a hot QB.

But they themselves making the QB play well? Nah, but I've seen Andy do it.

I said it BEFORE he won his first SB -- Andy Reid was always a victim of his own success.

People wanted to kill him for not winning a SB with Donovan McNabb when in fact, the only reason people thought that scatter-armed mediocrity was a championship caliber QB was BECAUSE of Andy Reid.

I didn't need the SBs to know that Reid was one of the best coaches of all time. But I'm sure glad he got 'em.

Hurts has pedestrian passing stats for his career, but it’s really hard to imagine a guy being in a better situation than he’s been.

A great duo of WRs. Always has talented running backs. Has had a really good Tight End. Great OL. At least pretty good defense.

Third and short has mostly been automatic for them as well.

Never thrown for 4,000 yards. Career high of 23 passing TDs.

If he ended up anywhere else, he might not be a starter right now.

If the Vikings want to move him to backup that's fine.

No way in the world should he be starting next year.

An average Hurts season is roughly:

3,500 yards. 20 TDs. 8 picks.

Nothing special at all.

I don’t know, there’s also so many ways you can dress up a pig. It reminds me of when dick vermeil used to gameplan around Jordan black. At some point you’re gonna be exposed. Those runs and quick passes don’t mean shit if your qb can’t prove he can do anything beyond that. It’s a wonder darnold was masked for that long.

I still really like KOC and the takeaway for me is that darnold largely got exposed for who he is. On the one hand KOC probably had an Andy Reid vs anuramo game where darnold should have taken what he was given. On the other hand I don’t think that would have mattered when the qb is that broken. We still have to remember that the Vikings went this far with a backup qb and I think that absolutely deserves coach of the year consideration.

Yeah absolutely. But I think he’ll be too expensive even with this disaster. He’s gonna start somewhere. There are a lot of really nice homes for him. Great option for a team like Indy who wants to start proving they can win but have limited options to upgrade past their bad qb. Or a team with an injury prone starter like Miami. Or why not a team like Tennessee or the giants as insurance as they aggressively look for a young qbotf.

I know people expect these guys to be all pro or bust. But there’s a terrific market for a low end starting / high caliber backup. Which I think darnold may have positioned himself that way

QB is everything. Remember in 2017 when we started off so hot with Alex and then by Thanksgiving Andy was fried? He was burnt out and gave Nagy playcalling duties.

He just couldn’t get anything out of Alex anymore. He squeezed that orange completely dry.

I think that’s exactly what’s happened here. The wildcard rd primarily was about defenses getting tape on these middle of the pack QB’s and killing them.

Darnold, Nix, Herbert, Love, Wilson. Just can’t hide these guys forever. Eventually it’s gut check time and plays needs to be made.

There’s a reason McVay traded for Stafford. Shannahan, McDaniels and KOC have been limited by their QB’s the way Andy was for years.

Yes, but Hurts is a very good runner too.

The curb stomped the Texans… that was probably their most impressive win.

We’re up to 88 people who think Darnold is worth $40 million a year. I wouldn’t pay him more than $12.

To be fair, a good portion of those people voted before yesterday's game. And I'm assuming that you counted all of the "tag" people, right? Because only 24 people voted to give him a contract, regardless of the steps taken to get to that point.

I don’t think KOC is Reid and he absolutely deserves criticism for his team’s playoff performances, but I still think he’s one of the better coaches in the league. He won 14 games with ****ing Sam Darnold. You can only keep it rolling like that for so long. They have a roster with tons of talent at the skill positions but you don’t win with flashy skill positions players in January. Everywhere else, thery’re just good at best.

Vikings fans should be extremely encouraged despite the results of this year. They knew Darnold was a bridge QB the moment they drafted McCarthy.

I still believe they’ve got a top coaching staff with KOC/Flores. They have a QB in waiting, their star LT will be back next year and they still have a very talented team.

Only problem they have is draft capital. They’ve only got a 1st and two 5th’s. They’re a strong candidate to trade down and recoup some draft picks.

They might be an ideal trade partner for the Chiefs if we want to move up for someone.

If they do keep Darnold, they need to provide him with some diapers and perhaps a rubber nipple. Dude shit himself all over the place

Told ya'll Darnold sucks. The hilarity is that people are enamored by stats. TDs, QB rating, which rarely tells the whole story only part of the story. You need a guy that can make plays on 3rd down and 4th down. So many Vikings fans were blinded by this and thought they had found their knight in shining armor.

But man give McConnell a real QB and that Vikings team could be scary.

Well the Vikes will get a comp pick if they let Darnold walk at least.

I added all the tag votes. The QB tag salary is probably going to be $40 million, and I don’t think anyone is going to trade for him in that scenario. He’s a backup at this point, and $12 puts him near the top. I think tagging him is going to cost them 40 no matter the condition.

Poll fail, no "Jonestown" option. McCarthy and Darnold both suck.

Someone is unquestionably going to pay this dude, the guy threw for 4,400 yards, 35 TD and won 14 games. Might not be the Vikings, but I can't see a scenario where he's not starting somewhere next year.

It could be that we finally see that "mid-tier" QB market emerge for guys like him around $25-30 million a year. This whole trend of literally every QB who signs a deal resetting the market needs to stop, and he might be just the guy who kicks it off. There is a world between $50 million to be a subpar starter while crippling your franchise and $10 million to be a backup, and Darnold is exactly who that world is. I'm sure him and his agent will shoot for much more, but I think that's where he's going to land. It's going to be really interesting, maybe will end up changing things for the better.

Sacknold

If Stroud Sob's again will you put that new av up too?

You got it

Sign Aaron Rodgers and hope to replicate Favre’s time in Minnesota.

You gotta tag and trade Darnold at this point.

They can't really tag him. They don't have any middle-round draft picks. They need to be active in free agency and they won't be able to do that with a near $40M "on hold" for Darnold.

Biggest thing Darnold has going for him is that this coming draft is extremely weak at QB and he’s by far the best option at QB in FA.

A team like the Colts should absolutely offer Darnold a contract kinda like what Baker Mayfield got. Anthony Richardson is a horrific QB and Joe Flacco turns 40 in 2 days.

It’s also possible Darnold goes to the Giants for the same reasons.

The coach/GM of both these franchises knows the QB’s in this draft suck and are on thin ice. They need to win now.

He’ll have a market

Yeah you are probably right as no team is going to give up high draft picks for him after his last 2 games. So let him go and test the market. I bet there is a stupid team out there ready to pay him like they are going to do for Cousins.

Some of you guys are living in 1987 or something. This league is desperate for QBs and someone is going to pay him without hesitation. Might not be the Vikings, but the dude just won 14 games and threw for 4,400 yards and 35 TD, and has the pedigree of a top 5 pick.

He’s getting money.

Yep. Too many needy teams. He will be in demand.

No one's giving Darnold $40M/yr unless they're just stupid. He may not get Baker's deal.

I have no idea about the money. But he’s proven he can come in and be a bridge QB and help stabilize a franchise. Ala , Alex Smith it up for a few years.

Can he do that on a team without an offensive coach like O’Connell and without Jefferson and Addison at WR?

Exactly. And once they dissect precisely how DET/LAR did what they did to Darnold, if it's easily repeatable, Darnold's stock will drop even further.


And don't get me wrong, I like Sam and his story/resurgence this season. But plainly he can be smothered by the right defensive scheme or whatever.



Though, I also noticed that MIN/KOC basically stopped running fairly early in the game, and that put Darnold on an island. having to do everything himself, which was never going to be a good idea. So, there's also some question about KOC's playcalling IQ.

Most likely not, but that’s not going to stop some poverty franchise from handing him the bag and hoping he’s for real.

If teams were smart, they would only sign guys like Darnold if they knew they were drafting a QB and wanted a year to marinate the rookie on the bench.

I'd never sign a guy like him based on some hope he'd win me a bunch of games and get me to the playoffs just to sell some tickets. Even if he does, he isn't taking you the distance.

The only ticket you really should be interested in is the golden ticket that gives you a true franchise QB and the only way you usually get one of those is to pick in the top 10. If you don't have one, you're just as well off embracing losing until you get your shot.

This is what they did...

You're talking like all owners care about football. More than half of them care more about money. Bring mediocre still sells tickets and doesn't take as much effort.

Sheesh, this really is right up Ballard and the Colts alley.

The good news for Darnold is this is a weak QB draft and veteran QB free agency/realistically available by trade market.

So many teams need a starting QB this offseason…
Titans
Giants
Jets
Saints
Raiders
Steelers
Browns
Colts

I'm not arguing against the Vikings, I'm arguing that other teams would be smart to follow suit and not foolishly offer the guy a multi-year contract that bogs them down in mediocrity.

Winning playoff games helps drive future ticket prices up which equates to more money. It also equates to selling more merchandise which equates to more money. They should want to win, not just fill stadiums 3/4 full during the regular season. Granted, they will still get the bulk of their money from the pooled broadcasting revenues but they can add on to it by simply sporting a winning team.

How much does it cost to go from a "one and done" to a contender? Many owners don't want to invest in a championship. It's not worth the cost. They can sit back and collect their TV revenue without really having to do anything big.

The Pittsburgh pirates turned this into a science. Build a beautiful stadium, invest in a just good enough team to sell tickets. After decades of failure land cy young prospect with a smoke show girlfriend. Thankfully nfl at least has a salary floor.

It’s so stupid that there’s no accountability for owners. Owners who put out a shitty product should feel the pain in their wallets. They shouldn’t hold cities hostage because they’re stuck with someone who sucks. There’s a reason every time a CBA gets negotiated they never ever show their books.

Tag Darnold for one year and see if JJ McCarthy can play. Darnold can tutor him.

Can't cut him loose until you know what JJ has.

Eh - I think MOST owners care more about football than you give them credit for.

It's hubris and pride more than anything. These guys are among a handful of billionaires in the nations ultimate zero-sum competition. They don't want to go to the owners meetings with other billionaires and have to acknowledge that their team sucks.

It's not necessarily that they care about football specifically, it's that they care about supremacy. Arrogance and pride.

I mean yeah, football makes a lot of money, but so do land investment trusts. But they don't get to be on TV by plowing billions into Blackrock.

I think the guys who care more about money than winning are the outliers. I mean look at Lamar -- did you think he didn't care about winning? I don't -- I think he BADLY wanted to win the trophy with his name on it. He just wasn't quite sure how. And he trusted the wrong people (person -- Carl Peterson). But on its face, 'being mediocre and selling tickets' is what the Chiefs did best through the 90s.

I don't think that's because he cared more about money than winning.

This will be a hard pill to swallow for us after Mahomes retires. You have to get a guy in the top 10. Maybe top 5. Sure you can try for a Hurts or Love, but look at those guys. They just aren’t good enough.

You have to hope that a guy falls just far enough like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes due to the perceived bias of needing “a ton of work”.

Even then I don’t think teams are as dumb about this anymore.

There’s a difference between wanting to win for ego vs having actual skin in the game. That’s the problem. The reason most of these owners pump money into their team is because of a salary floor. Without it, they wouldn’t. We see in other sports way way too many owners who won’t spend money they have into their team. I think it’s a matter of… if we’re required to spend money anyway, might as well try to win.

When you fail in an investment you lose your ass. When you fail in the nfl, you still make a shitload of money… it’s just less than your earnings potential. So the incentive is really different. I would agree it’s not just purely money driven. You have notorious cheapskates like mike brown and the mccaskeys. You also have guys like Dan Snyder and irsay where there is an utter lack of accountability. If you’re talking other sports like mlb… there are way more owners where money is more important than winning.

In the many ways we are now spoiled,we are crazy lucky to have the Hunts. A unique experience where the owner thinks of his team as family. I believe this was a huge deciding factor in bringing Reid here.

Yup. He’s gonna have a ton of leverage too.

I don’t get why people are handwaving the guy getting a Baker Mayfield esque deal. Baker is the 18th highest paid QB. That’s market rate. And hell Darnold isn’t gonna cost you draft picks.

For a team like the Colts and Giants that’s 100% worth it. It’s a shit year to draft a QB and your job is on the line. You need to get to the playoffs now.
Hell Ben Johnson might get him if he goes to Vegas.

Darnold is a fine bridge QB like Alex was. Pay him, get your pieces for your future QBOTF and keep looking in future drafts.

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.