The Minnesota Vikings can't get over how their 2024 season ended, and it's tough to blame them. Minnesota was riding high entering the final week of the regular season, and had a chance to win the NFC North with a victory over the Detroit Lions in enemy territory.
However, the Lions slammed that door in their face. Detroit delivered a blueprint on how to defeat the Vikings with Darnold, winning 31-9 and providing the former first-round pick with very little time to make decisions or even get to his second read.
What happened in the postseason was a reflection of what Aaron Glenn's Lions defense did that Sunday night in Week 18. Because they lost in Detroit, Darnold and Minnesota traveled on the road and were handled easily by the Los Angeles Rams. Much like against Detroit, Darnold never got a handle for the pressure applied by LA, and folded quickly. In his final two games as starter, Darnold's Vikings accumulated just 18 points and one passing touchdown. He was sacked 11 times total, and pressured far more than that.
Vikings can't forget about how Sam Darnold's season ended
As Kwesi Adofo-Mensah decides whether to keep Darnold or roll the dice on JJ McCarthy or Daniel Jones, he can't get those games out of his head.
“I was telling my staff if I could have thought of a brain teaser, of an experiment to think through, that would have been a pretty tough one where, Pro Bowl quarterback, win all those games and then lose to two teams twice. And so that was really kind of the core of our off season, really thinking through that holistically, trying not to be overweighted by those eight quarters [against the Lions and Rams], but not to under-weigh those last two games," Adofo-Mensah said.
That is a giant word salad, but the last sentence tells the entire story. Minnesota will not give Darnold the franchise tag because they won't be able to make necessary improvements to areas like the offensive line, which were exposed when their quarterback saw ghosts against Detroit and LA.
The Minnesota Vikings really should've seen this coming
That's the sad truth about Darnold and many quarterbacks like him – he is great standing still in the pocket, but the minute that construct breaks down he's prone to mistakes. At times, he'll collapse like a folding chair. When he is able to get the ball out, it won't resemble the golden arm of a former first-round selection out of USC.
Darnold will make a lot of money somewhere this offseason because of his first 16 games in Minnesota last season. That team better have an offensive line to protect Darnold, and a damn good strategy for when they cannot.