As the Vikings sit at 1-5 on the season, most talk is around who will be the next quarterback for the team.
Of course, Kirk Cousins is under contract for two more seasons. But there is plenty of hope that the Vikings will either draft a quarterback early in the 2021 NFL Draft, or that they sign or trade for a young quarterback with some upside.
There’s a world in which that young quarterback is the Jets’ Sam Darnold.
If the Vikings were to land in the back-half of the top-10, it might be too far down to get any of the three quarterbacks that are projected to go early (Trevor Lawrence, Trey Lance or Justin Fields) without trading up.
The Jets are the favorites to land the first pick and they’ll almost certainly take Lawrence.
That would mean Darnold, the third pick of the 2018 draft, would be expendable. Would it take a third-round pick to get him? And if you’re the Vikings, is that worth it?
Darnold’s per-16 game regular season averages are 3,563 yards, 21 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. Not great, but also, he’s only 23 years old.
The huge risk here is that Darnold is in the last year of his rookie contract in 2021 before the team will have to decide on his fifth-year option, which will be expensive.
It seems more likely the Vikings would just trade up for the quarterback they want, but it’s certainly a player to keep an eye for Vikings fans.