Sam Darnold led the Vikings to their best record in years. But two bad games may have cost him his job — and millions

Vikings QB Sam Darnold was on his way to a big payday this offseason. But two bad games may have cost him his job — and millions.

Inside the world’s most valuable sports league, perhaps the most impactful decision a team can make is deciding who will play its most important position: quarterback. And for the NFL season’s first 17 weeks, Minnesota’s decision to sign Sam Darnold to a one-year, $10 million contract last spring looked like one of the league’s best bargains.

Originally intended to be the Vikings’ backup, only to be thrust into a starting job on the eve of the regular season because of a preseason injury to rookie and first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, Darnold instantly thrived within the offensive system of Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell, himself a former NFL quarterback, displaying the type of production that led him to be selected third overall in the 2018 NFL draft and little of the struggles that made Minnesota already the fourth stop of Darnold’s seven-year career.

Yet as soon as the Minnesota Vikings’ season stunningly ended Monday, in a 27-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the NFL playoffs, a dilemma began.

Will teams around the league still view Darnold as a potential face of the franchise capable of taking his team to new heights, or a flawed free agent who will regress to the mean?

It wasn’t a question many were considering only two weeks earlier. Entering the regular season’s final week, the Vikings had rattled off nine consecutive wins, a streak that owed to Minnesota’s aggressive defense, but also to its quarterback, who had thrown 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. By significant margins, Darnold’s passer rating and completion percentages were both career-bests. Teammates were so fond of Darnold that, after Minnesota won its 14th game — one off the franchise record — in Week 17 to set up a regular-season finale with Detroit that would decide the NFC’s top seed in the playoffs, Vikings players lifted Darnold on their shoulders to raucous cheers.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/nfl/sam-darnold-vikings-free-agency-nfl-rcna187677

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