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Earlier than too lengthy, the Minnesota Vikings’ brass will prolong head coach Kevin O’Connell’s contract, and that’ll be that.
Vikings Reportedly Under the Gun to Handle One Player for the Long Haul
But in step with the Pioneer Press, the team is below the gun to preserve Sam Darnold previous 2024, too.
Brad Rempel-Imagn Photographs,
PP’s Charley Walters wrote closing weekend, “There might be mounting stress internally to prolong the contracts of Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who’s signed thru 2025, and QB Sam Darnold, who can change into a free agent after the season.”
Most would count on to perceive O’Connell’s title listed in a passage worship that — he’s the league’s frontrunner to win Coach of the Yr and is attending to a device in his coaching profession when NFL onlookers preserve in strategies him a High 10 skipper.
Brad Rempel-Imagn Photographs.
Darnold is pretty diverse, nonetheless.
“Mounting stress” on re-signing a bridge quarterback in the heart of the season is a slight bit irregular. Minnesota drafted Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy in April with the tenth total make a selection, and sooner than he tore his meniscus, McCarthy vied for the QB1 job in opposition to Darnold in July and August. His season-ending distress concluded the quarterback fight.
The Vikings signed Darnold for ten million bucks in March, a actually glaring deal to form a patchover quarterback to a passer to be named later. That became out to be McCarthy.
On the full speaking, it’s unclear why Minnesota might possibly be feeling the stress to re-signal Darnold in October 2024. That’s a dialogue for February and March of 2025 — not in difference to Kirk Cousins’ contractual dealings closing offseason.
Matt Krohn-Imagn Photographs.
Darnold ranks tenth in the NFL per EPA+CPOE among all qualifying quarterbacks, an efficiency metric measuring expected wins added. He’s on tempo for right below 4,000 passing yards, 34 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. If followers had been urged of that tempo in July, shall we explain, they’d’ve been entirely contented.
Yet, Darnold’s otherworldly efficiency from Week 1 to a couple has slowed, and some own realized he obtained’t relieve the elite clip.
Regardless, “below the gun” to prolong him one day of the heart of the season is peculiar. That dialogue will be nice and, undoubtedly, cause raucous debates among followers if the Vikings tunnel deep into the postseason. At this moment, extending Darnold wishes to be a nothingburger. That’s a February Vikings challenge.
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No subject what, too, Minnesota has McCarthy in the chamber for the lengthy haul. They obtained’t change him with Darnold … barring a miraculous Mammoth Bowl triumph — and they’d even assume twice in that scenario.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his day after day YouTube Channel, VikesNow . The impress aspects guests, analysis, and conception on all things connected to the red team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates aid to 1996. Listed responsible pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doorways (the band). He follows the NBA as carefully as the NFL.
All statistics supplied by Expert Soccer Reference / Stathead ; all contractual files supplied by OverTheCap.com .