Sam Darnold continues to make Vikings' decision difficult with latest impressive milestone
How great has Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold been this season? Now that we are 14 games into the 2024 season, the consistency that Darnold is playing with isn't a mirage anymore. Darnold is currently tied for fifth in Most Valuable Player odds on DraftKings Sportsbook and it's easy to see why. Darnold has completed […]
How great has Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold been this season?
Now that we are 14 games into the 2024 season, the consistency that Darnold is playing with isn't a mirage anymore. Darnold is currently tied for fifth in Most Valuable Player odds on DraftKings Sportsbook and it's easy to see why.
Darnold has completed 67.6% of his passes for 3,530 yards and 29 touchdowns, which are all career highs. It's a remarkable turnaround for Darnold, who has been phenomenal across the board.
Sam Darnold's latest milestone continues impressive season
One of the more impressive elements from Darnold this season is how well he's doing with a brand new team. He became just the third quarterback in NFL history to throw for 3,500 yards, 29 touchdowns and a passer rating over 100 in the first 14 games with his new team.
One of the best examples of his success this season was the dig route he threw to Justin Jefferson which had elite anticipation on Monday night.
It's a throw that only franchise quarterbacks make during the course of an NFL game and Darnold has a laundry list of them throughout this season. Head coach Kevin O'Connell was asked about the play and had a lot of nice things to say about it with some cool perspective.
"I thought that was a great example of, part of throwing with anticipation is trusting in the way we talk about plays, where it's not necessarily is a guy open. It's more about voids and vacancies and throwing people into those. That's what anticipation is all about. Sam's [Darnold] done a great job of that on a lot of outbreaking routes this year. As we've progressed throughout the season, more and more times it's shown up on some of those in breakers where it could get noisy in there, especially down in that area. Actually, that wasn't really on the sheet in the red zone. It was just kind of in the moment. Just thought going fast there and getting a chance to get Justin [Jefferson] some free access and get him in there. If we had to check the ball down, I think J .O. [Josh Oliver] was kind of underneath on the other side, we could. I loved how aggressive he was. It was all about feet and eyes, timing, rhythm. Because if you hesitated at all right there, that's probably at the best-case scenario for us, a deflection. Obviously, there could be worse outcomes than that. I just thought the aggressiveness to turn it loose and how we did it to throw decisive, firm was phenomenal."
The playcall not even being in the red zone game plan but O'Connell feeling the vibes to call it anyway is incredible. That's exactly what you want to see from an elite play caller like O'Connell and the trust he has in Darnold elevates the entire offense.
The Vikings are in a great spot right now with Darnold and three more regular season games left to potentially win the NFC North.
Vikings EDGE Jonathan Greenard gives legendary postgame comment that will never be forgotten
You couldn’t ask for anything better
