The Minnesota Vikings have a high opinion of Sam Darnold after he led them to 14 wins and a playoff berth last season, but the team won't commit to him being the quarterback of the future -- or even the starter just in 2025.
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O'Connell met with media members at the NFL Combine on Tuesday, Feb. 25, and spoke in depth about the franchise's situation under center, which potentially includes Darnold, J.J. McCarthy, Daniel Jones or some combination of the three.
However, what the Vikings didn't do was confirm that Darnold would be back next season via the franchise tag or an extension. Instead, Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell played both sides of the fence with their comments in a unified media strategy.
"He played a lot of good football for us Year 1 in the system, and so you can expect more later," Adofo-Mensah said of Darnold. "We're excited at the potential for Sam, wherever that ends up being."
O'Connell's words were different, but added up to essentially the same thing.
"This process is going to play out both short-term and long-term for the Minnesota Vikings, and Sam is in a position where the NFL thinks he can play quarterback at a very high level," O'Connell added.
The Vikings may not have had the rope necessary to move on from Darnold this offseason if he hadn't fallen so short in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions with the No. 1 seed in the NFC on the line and against the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the playoffs, which ended Minnesota's year.
Adofo-Mensah spoke to how the team is considering those two performances against Darnold's 16 other games, all of which were part of a career year that included more than 4,300 passing yards and 35 touchdowns.
"[We are] not trying to be overweighted by those eight quarters, but not underweighting those last two games," the GM said.
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported over the weekend that the Vikings aren't necessarily opposed to bringing Darnold back. However, they aren't willing to break the bank to keep Darnold alongside McCarthy if the former can garner big offers in free agency.
Fowler added that Minnesota is firmly committed to McCarthy as their franchise QB, though the timetable to that transition remains in flux, and that whoever the veteran in the position group is in 2025 will be a bridge quarterback to the second-year signal-caller.
