If you were waiting this season for Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold to fail – not in an evil schadenfreude sense, but more in an “Oh, there’s the Sam Darnold of old” sense – then Darnold’s Sunday night performance against Detroit in a 31-9 Lions win gave you a lot of ballast for that position.
But he can still be Cinderella The Vikings’ surprise package was one of the NFL best quarterbacks all season long until Sunday night’s stinker in Detroit.
He signed a one-year, $10m deal with the Vikings this past offseason to be first-round rookie JJ McCarthy’s backup, but when McCarthy suffered a turn meniscus in the preseason, it was all on Darnold and he responded brilliantly.
The third overall pick by the New York Jets in the 2018 draft had three middling seasons with his original team, two more with the Carolina Panthers in 2021 and 2022, and a backup role with the San Francisco 49ers in 2023.
Darnold had become one of the NFL’s best stories this season.
