Sam Darnold Assigns Blame for Vikings’ Break Down During 2024 Stretch Run

For much of last season, the Minnesota Vikings looked nigh unstoppable, and bargain-bin quarterback Sam Darnold was among the biggest reasons why.

However, Darnold and Minnesota had clear issues with two teams: the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams. The Vikings went 14-3 on the year, losing twice to Detroit and once to L.A.

Minnesota’s final defeat of the regular season came at the hands of the Lions in Week 18 and resulted in the Vikings claiming No. 5 seed. They squared off away from home against a rested Rams group over Super Wildcard Weekend, most of whose star players sat the final week of the campaign, and Los Angeles rolled Minnesota out of the postseason in embarrassing fashion (27-9).

Darnold, who had inked a $10 million prove-it deal in Minnesota, hit free agency and cashed in with $100.5 million from the Seattle Seahawks. But even now — five months later, nine figures wealthier and poised to start for an NFC rival — the 28-year-old signal caller remains bothered by how the end of the Vikings’ otherwise mostly magical season went down.

“For lack of a better term, we laid an egg as an offense,” Darnold said, per Mike Silver of The Athletic. “And I think, for me personally, that sucks. I felt like we were a really good team. But at the end of the day … when you get to the end of it and you don’t win the whole thing, you failed.

I feel like I could have played way better,” Darnold continued. “I feel like if I would have just played better, I would’ve been able to give the team a chance.”

Vikings Addressed Offensive Line Issues During Offseason

Darnold assigning blame to himself for the team’s struggles in the two games that mattered most is noble. That said, most Vikings fans and objective observers would probably agree with him.

That isn’t to say the entirety of the failure falls on Darnold’s shoulders. Both Detroit and Los Angeles exposed the offensive line, which was weak across the interior and playing without elite left tackle Christian Darrisaw due to a season-ending knee injury.

As a result, Darnold took two sacks against the Lions and a back-breaking nine sacks in Round 1 against the Rams. Minnesota addressed those issues this offseason by signing guard Will Fries and center Ryan Kelly to big free-agent deals before drafting guard Donovan Jackson out of Ohio State with its first-round pick.

Kevin O’Connell Made Some Mistakes Down Stretch of Vikings’ 2024 Campaign

Head coach Kevin O’Connell, who has a reputation around the NFL as an elite offensive schemer and developer of quarterbacks, also carries some of the blame.

O’Connell came up as an offensive coordinator under Rams head coach Sean McVay and won a title there in 2021. It isn’t often that a competitor clearly out-coaches O’Connell, though that appeared the case against McVay in both contests last season.

Los Angeles also made the decision not to fight for the No. 3 seed in Week 18, resting its players who looked far fresher than the Vikings in the wildcard round. Minnesota played its stars on the road in Detroit in Week 18 because the NFC North Division title and the No. 1 seed in the conference/a bye into Round 2 were on the line.

In retrospect, that decision cost the Vikings. Now O’Connell and company have to figure out how to get back to the playoffs and succeed this year where they failed the last — all with second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy who has yet to take a regular-season snap in the NFL.