Sam Darnold is headed to the Super Bowl, and the Minnesota Vikings aren’t. That’s prompted some questions for the franchise.
Four days after Darnold led the Seattle Seahawks to a win in the NFC championship game and 10 months after the quarterback left Minnesota, Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah discussed the team’s decision to let him walk in free agency with reporters.
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Adofo-Mensah was asked specifically how he weighed the decision to not hit Darnold with the franchise tag and how everything has played out. He admitted some unease about the decision, but said he still understands the reasons behind it.
Part of his answer:
«You’re trying to make sure you don’t lock yourselves into what you did and thinking that it’s always right, and so there are those nights you wake up and stare at the ceiling and ask yourself. I always go back to the process and what we thought at the time. It’s easier to and be revisionist and results-based, but going to think through what we had at the time, I still understand why we did what we did.
«The results maybe didn’t play out the way we wanted them to, but ultimately, I think at the end of the day we could have executed better in certain places. I don’t want to say it individually, in terms of a particular player, but just executing better — knowing what the room was, playstyle-wise, experience-wise, and just putting together a better combination of people, a collective in that group, that’s probably what I focused on the most.»
The results «maybe» not playing out as the Vikings hoped is an understatement. Last year, the Vikings went 14-3 with Darnold under center. Without him, they went 9-8 and missed the playoffs. Last year, the Seahawks went 10-7 and missed the playoffs. With Darnold, they went 14-3 and are about to play in the Super Bowl.
The causality is far more complicated than the above paragraph makes it sound, but that’s an undeniably rough shift for a franchise.
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At the time of Darnold’s free agency, the Vikings had former 10th overall pick J.J. McCarthy in reserve. The 23-year-old was clearly positioned as the team’s quarterback of the future despite missing his rookie year with a torn meniscus, while Darnold was initially intended to be a stopgap who then played his way into stardom. The team decided to keep McCarthy over the 28-year-old Darnold, who would have been due a $40.2 million salary had the team hit him with the franchise tag.
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Of course, that decision didn’t work out for Minnesota. McCarthy struggled heavily this season and missed time with an ankle sprain, a concussion and a hand fracture. The team went 6-4 in his starts and 3-4 in games started by backups Max Brosmer and Carson Wentz. Only two teams, the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns, had a worse passer rating or fewer passing yards this season. No team threw more interceptions.
Darnold, meanwhile, continued to thrive in his second act as a starter and is now the favorite for Super Bowl MVP honors. Still, it’s hard to think of many observers who didn’t see his three-year, $100.5 million contract as a risk for Seattle. This one just paid off, giving the team a Pro Bowl quarterback to match one of the NFL’s top rosters.
