The 5 Most Likely Sam Darnold Destinations
Credit: Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
Sam Darnold’s 2024 season with the Minnesota Vikings has changed the entire outlook of his career. Heading into the year, there was chatter from some experts who believed the Vikings would have the first pick in April. Even though the last two weeks didn’t go as hoped, you can’t take away the fact that the former USC star was one win away in Week 18 from an NFC North title and a first-round bye.
Now that the season is over though, let’s take a look at the five most likely Sam Darnold destinations in order of least likely to most likely.
5. Minnesota Vikings
Before the duds in the last two weeks of the season, the Minnesota Vikings were higher on this list. The bad Darnold came back and even Kevin O’Connell seemed to hint that this era might be done after the loss against the Los Angeles Rams.
“I just want to say it’s very important we all think about Sam’s body of work, what he was able to do this year, when not many people thought he would be able to lead a team to 14 wins,” O’Connell said…”It did not work out in the end, and I think Sam would be the first one to tell you, could he have played better tonight? I’m sure he would tell you he could have.”
After all, the Vikings still have J.J. McCarthy, who will be back after this season, and if he was coming out into the draft this year, he would probably be the number one quarterback on most experts’ big board.
Perhaps the last couple of weeks will knock the financial number to a more desirable one for the team but The Vikings already had Kirk Cousins, a big money QB that could fail in the big moment; they don’t need to give Darnold a long-term deal for that to happen again.
4. San Franciso 49ers
Sam Darnold is already familiar with Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers, and a reunion makes a whole lot of sense, at the right number. Current 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is entering the last year of his rookie contract and there have been some massive numbers thrown around for a contract extension. Spotrac released their contract projection for him, and they believe his next contract will pay him $59.7 million per year.
If the 49ers aren’t happy with that and they don’t believe they can get a deal done, it wouldn’t be bad to bring in a little competition, especially if that contact is a little cheaper than expected with Darnold’s struggles to end the season. It still seems most likely that Purdy and the 49ers get that long term deal done, but Darnold hasn’t lost the big game for San Francisco yet, which makes them a little more likely than the Vikings.
3. Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders won two games late in the season which dropped them to the sixth overall pick, and might have dropped them out of territory to take one of the top quarterbacks in the draft. This Raiders team might not be a Super Bowl contender with a good quarterback, but they are closer than some of the other teams drafting around the top of the draft. Heading into the 2025 offseason, they have over $92 million in cap space, so if they decide they want to sign him, money isn’t going to be a problem.
A lot of the Raiders decisions will come down to who they hire to be their head coach. Let’s say someone like Brian Flores is hired, and he brings an offensive member of the Vikings staff to be an offensive coordinator, they would probably move up on this list. We don’t know what’s going to happen yet at head coach though, so third most likely seems right at this moment.
2. New York Giants
The New York Giants are another team that won a game late to hurt their draft position and moving them up in the Sam Darnold sweepstakes. Brian Dabboll and Joe Schoen have both been brought back, but there is a ton of pressure on them to win now to save their jobs. Long-term Darnold might not be the best move for the Giants, but with the team deciding not to make a big coaching change this offseason he might be ideal.
The first time Darnold played in East Rutherford, New Jersey, it didn’t work out, but this is with the Giants, not the Jets. There is a chance that Darnold doesn’t want to deal with the New York Media again, but money talks, and if the Giants offer enough money, he will probably deal with it.
1. Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers don’t have a quarterback under contract for the 2025 season with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields both being free agents. Mike Tomlin has always seemed to gravitate towards veteran quarterbacks, and Darnold could be a better option than both Fields and Wilson. Arthur Smith is a very good offensive coordinator (as long he doesn’t get a head coaching job), but Darnold needs weapons. With the Vikings, he had Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and TJ Hockeson. If the Steelers do want to bring in Darnold they need to bring in some help. With the Steelers defense and the team still in a win-now mode, if not Darnold, it’s going to be another veteran who is leading the way.
Right now with the defense the Steelers possess, it makes a ton of sense for Mike Tomlin to put his chips all in the basket of the former third overall pick.
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