On Sunday morning, Adam Schefter reported that Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings had not discussed a long-term contract. Schefter tied his report to Sunday’s game, where Kirk Cousins was returning to Minnesota to face Darnold and the Vikings.
However, after going 22 of 28 for 347 yards and five touchdowns in Minnesota’s 42-21 win over Atlanta, Darnold may be making the Vikings reconsider their position.
“I’m good for a little emotional moment every now and again,” said Kevin O’Connell, referencing Darnold pumping up the crowd from the sidelines toward the end of the game. “But I’m just proud of him. Days like this are [a result of] so many hours upon hours of hard work.”
Darnold is typically reserved during games and in his media availabilities. However, the jumbotron caught him pumping up the crowd. Who can blame him after he set career highs for passing yards (347), touchdowns (five), and passer rating (157.9)?
“I just felt the buzz,” said Darnold. “That was pure passion, pure joy, man.”
Since throwing three interceptions against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9, Darnold has 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. His five touchdown passes against Atlanta are a career high, the most for a Vikings quarterback since Daunte Culpepper in 2004.
“There can be incredible growth in moments where maybe on the outside, it seemed leaving Jacksonville [there was] something really wrong,” said O’Connell.
“That’s why I was so excited that day to win the game and have such a teachable moment where…Sam’s going back in Monday morning based upon a lot of things that [quarterbacks coach] Josh [McCown] and [quarterbacks coach] Grant [Udinski] and myself talked to him about, almost self-coaching in a lot of ways.”
Darnold talked to them about where his eyes and feet were on each play, and his process of going through reads. He knew what he had done wrong and was willing to learn from his mistakes.
“This day will be something that he can build off of. I truly do believe that in our offense,” said O’Connell. “And there’s a lot of things that we’ll be able to really highlight of who we want to be about as a football team that are going to show up on this tape.”
Minnesota’s offense is humming because of Darnold’s play. Jordan Addison finished with eight receptions for 133 yards, and Justin Jefferson had seven for 132 yards. Minnesota’s 42 points are the most since O’Connell took over as head coach. Jefferson and Addison are the first Vikings duo to go for 100-plus yards and at least two touchdowns each. Randy Moss and Cris Carter never accomplished that feat.
“He had every right to be (excited),” said Jefferson in response to seeing Darnold’s emotions on the sideline. “Just the performance that he had, only incompleting what, six passes? Getting over 305 touchdowns, that’s something that’s very hard to do, especially in this league.
“For him to go out there with the composure that he had, the leadership that he had, and just taking us down the field, just being that leader, it was phenomenal to see.”
Darnold feels part of his emphatic outburst at the end of the game resulted from his work after that game, which manifested against Atlanta.
“Whenever I show passion, whenever our entire team shows passion on the field, and it comes out as emotion, that is a huge testament to kind of the amount of work we put in,” said Darnold, who admitted it would be weird if he just sat stoically on the bench. “When you see it come to fruition, it’s such a great feeling. And sometimes it’s really hard to hide that.”
While Darnold has played well since struggling against Jacksonville, Cousins has thrown eight interceptions and no touchdown passes. Minnesota’s win ultimately vindicated their decision to move on from Cousins, even if O’Connell didn’t want to say so after the game.
However, Darnold’s play is creating another conundrum for the Vikings. Spotrac projects him to earn a four-year, $137.5 million contract next year. That’s considerably more than J.J. McCarthy’s rookie deal. That’s a champagne problem for the offseason. For now, the Vikings beat Cousins in his return to Minnesota and are still in the NFC North hunt at 11-2.