Sam Darnold's remarkable season continues as he prepares to win another prestigious award
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold has arguably had the best season in the National Football League compared to preseason expectations. Going into the year, the discussion was centered around whether Darnold would even start a game with rookie J.J. McCarthy vastly improving throughout training camp. His preseason debut was so good that many thought McCarthy […]
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold has arguably had the best season in the National Football League compared to preseason expectations.
Going into the year, the discussion was centered around whether Darnold would even start a game with rookie J.J. McCarthy vastly improving throughout training camp. His preseason debut was so good that many thought McCarthy was going to get the nod in week one. Well, that didn't manifest and he ended up tearing his meniscus and was then out for the season.
Once the regular season started, Darnold was on a collision course with greatness.
Sam Darnold on track to win another award
His September was excellent. Darnold played so well that he earned NFC Offensive Player of the Month honors with his 11 touchdown passes, leading the NFL in that category. Against the Falcons earlier this month, Darnold's five touchdown passes tied a season-high in the NFL and won him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
His season has been incredible and the numbers back it up.
- Passing yards: 3,776 (6th in NFL)
- Completion percentage: 67.2% (12th)
- Touchdowns: 32 (5th)
- Touchdown percentage: 6.9 (4th)
- Air yards/attempt: 8.6 (5th)
- Passer rating: 105.4 (4th)
This month has been exemplary for Darnold. He is torching defenses this season and doing so even more during the month of December. So far, Darnold has 1,059 passing yards with 11 touchdowns and one interception and, with one game left to go, has it primed to be his best month of the season.
In fact, Darnold just set a Vikings record with a 100+ passer rating in 12 games this season.
In turn, Darnold is set to be NFC Offensive Player of the Month again in December, an award that would strengthen his case to be the league's Most Valuable Player. His performance has been nothing short of exemplary.
One thing that stood out during Sunday's win over the Seattle Seahawks was how the offensive line celebrated with Darnold after the game-winning touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson.
After the game, that sentiment was one of the first things that head coach Kevin O'Connell talked about postgame.
"Sam has had some huge plays this year, considering the circumstances, and kind of how that play came to life, for him to move up and throw the ball, really on the move there with that kind of accuracy and to know where Justin was going to be in the moment, was a remarkable play. It doesn't get better than that.
"And I thought, as I told the team, his 12th time being over a 100.0 rating, which is a very, very significant number in our offense in this system, what has become Sam's offense, making some of the plays and throws he did, like you said it was far from perfect. There's a lot of things that we all can do better. But you know, this is what it's going to take every 60-minute opportunity we have the rest of the way to find a way to win football games. Big plays in big moments, doing the little things, winning the turnover battle, winning the penalty ballot, field position bat the. Wasn't a great day running the football but a lot of really positive things that maybe might not jump out to a lot of football coaches but things we pour into to try to win football games every week."
Darnold is making it a lot harder for the Vikings to not try and extend him this offseason and he very well may be the franchise quarterback for the Vikings.
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It’s a very complicated situation
