Sam Darnold comfortably leads Vikings first-team offense in OTAs

There was no sign of competition at spring practice and Darnold is embracing veteran role

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — Sam Darnold rolled out to his left, flipped his hips and ripped a fastball with so much velocity behind it that you could hear the thud of the ball hitting Trishton Jackson’s chest from across the practice facility at TCO Performance Center. It was one of a number of impressive reps from the former first-round pick of the New York Jets quarterback as he took all of the first-team snaps as QB1 during the Minnesota Vikings’ OTA session open to the media on Tuesday.

Darnold looks like someone who has done this before. He got his teammates lined up and seemed to be throwing the ball on time. Professional veteran stuff. There were a few faux pas like an interception down the sideline where Darnold raised his hand in the air to indicate that it was on him but otherwise the practice appeared to roll along smoothly on the starters’ side of the field.

“Just continuing to get better at the little details and once I feel like I have something down, don’t be satisfied with that because it can come up in a big moment in the season,” Darnold said of his approach to learning the offense.

Last season Darnold was in San Francisco where they have some similar roots as Kevin O’Connell’s system, though he will be learning a new offensive language for the third year in a row.

“It’s been great, a lot similar formations, motions, all that stuff,” Darnold said. “Being in San Francisco in that West Coast system definitely helped.”

Darnold arrives at OTAs understanding that this will be the best situation he’s had during his six-year career. He went from playing with a struggling Jets franchise to a Panthers team that hired and fired a college coach within two years to a team in San Francisco that already had its starting quarterback Brock Purdy in place. He hasn’t had the combination of opportunity with stable coaching or weapons at his disposal like this before.

“Speaking from experience last year when I was at US Bank [Stadium] when I was playing with the Niners just the tempo offense that was used against our guys, I know that gave them some fits and I’m excited to use that as well,” Darnold said.

While it was clear from the moment that Kirk Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons that the Vikings were going to draft a quarterback, they have also made no bones about the fact that they think there is more there with Darnold than his Pro-Football Reference statistics page would suggest.

“The thing you see with Sam is the arm talent,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “He was the third pick in the draft for a reason and we’ve seen it showing up out here since Day 1 that we got out on the grass.”

As far as taking command of the offense, Darnold is no stranger to learning new offenses and verbiage. Phillips said they are happy with his progress so far.

“Sam’s been great, as good as we could have asked for, he’s right where he needs to be at this point in the year,” Phillips said. “He’s still leaning on his experiences. He’s played a lot of football. He’s been phenomenal.”

Darnold is aware that his job description goes beyond QB1. The Vikings’ decision to sign him was likely influenced in part by his work as Brock Purdy’s backup last season. He is sharing the quarterback rook with first-round pick JJ McCarthy, who worked almost exclusively with the backups as Darnold and Nick Mullens took the starting and second-team reps.

“JJ has been great,” Darnold said. “With him coming here, before we even got on the field together we were at one of the Wolves games together so we got to chat a little bit there. I was like, ‘first of all dude, congratulations on getting drafted, it’s a great experience and it flies by.’ He’s been great so far and continuing to learn and be a great quarterback in that room.”

Nobody knows better about the pressures that come along with being a top draft pick than Darnold. Not only was he the No. 3 overall selection in 2018, he took on the challenge of the New York media market and was shouldered with a team that was in rough shape roster wise.

Asked what outsiders don’t understand about being a top draft selection, Darnold joked, “how much time do you got?”

He pointed out that every situation is different, only lightly insinuating that it can have an impact on the outcome.

“There’s a lot with expectations and whether or not quarterbacks should start right away or sit a year or two,” Darnold said. “You see examples like CJ Stroud come in right away and play really well and then you see guys like Jordan Love who sit a couple years and then play really well. There’s different ways to view it. It totally depends on the situation, the organization, the guys in the locker room and what is surrounding that quarterback.”

Darnold described himself as being there to answer questions for McCarthy or any of the other rookies and said they would, “continue to have a bond.”

On McCarthy’s side of the practice field there were ups and downs. He fumbled a few snaps and had several players where it looked like the ball was supposed to be thrown but he tucked it and scrambled instead. There were also times where he threw passes with flames behind them for impressive completions. Put it this way: There were rookie moments and first-round pick moments.

“JJ has been a sponge, he’s been preparing…it shows up that he’s working on his own,” Phillips said. “Everything we give him he’s studying at night and on the field you see the talent and the reason we liked him. All those things, the intangible parts of JJ McCarthy and the things he does outside the building to get better but also you see the talent, you see the arm, you see the juice he’s got when he lets go of the football. It’s real early. OTA 2. But he’s right where he needs to be right now.”

To put into context how far McCarthy has to go, Phillips described that they were teaching him a new stance out of the shotgun formation with his left foot forward.

“The NFL is such a timing and rhythm based passing system where in college…there is a little more bouncing around or shuffling around sometimes quarterbacks aren’t given drops and it’s on them to feel it out…just defining those things helps these guys operate in the system,” Phillips said. “It takes a little time on the front end to learn.”

It will be worth watching as the offseason program goes along whether McCarthy gets more reps with the starters, particularly during mandatory minicamp in early June. For now, there was no sign of an open competition, rather the Vikings are keeping their word in developing McCarthy slowly.

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