GLENDALE, Ariz. — The look on Zygi Wilf’s face said it all. It was as if the Minnesota Vikings owner and chairman had just watched a horror movie with a gutting ending. He exited the locker room, stood for a few seconds and stared blankly at the crowd of people in front of him. His son, Jonathan, pointed him toward a long hallway. And off he went slowly into another offseason.

How did this end so abruptly? How did a 14-win Vikings team oscillate so quickly from being a potential No. 1 seed to losing in the wild-card round? Wilf’s mind turned with questions such as these.

None of them, though, were as confounding as this one: What happened to quarterback Sam Darnold?

Two weeks ago, Darnold’s Vikings teammates were dousing him with water bottles as part of a locker-room celebration following a win at U.S. Bank Stadium. Now, here they were Monday night at State Farm Stadium, zipping up their suitcases and heading for the buses after a brutal 27-9 loss to the underdog Los Angeles Rams.

The dichotomy between the two scenes was as stark as it was disorienting. In the first snapshot, the 27-year-old Darnold seemed to have completed a career transformation and galvanized an organization in the process. In the second, it felt fair to wonder how much of Darnold’s impressive play this season was a mirage.

“I think it’s very important we all think about Sam’s body of work,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said postgame. “It did not work out in the end, and I think Sam would be the first one to tell you (he could have played better).”

After a loss like this one, there are typically multiple culprits. The offensive line is another obvious one for Minnesota. The Rams sacked Darnold nine times, tying an NFL playoff record. Furthermore, 12 Rams defenders generated at least one pressure, according to Next Gen Stats, their most in a game since Week 6 in 2021.

Hoecht throws up the “LA” after the Rams latest sack

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— NFL (@NFL) January 14, 2025

Allocating cap space and draft capital to interior offensive linemen will be a priority this offseason. O’Connell suggested as much Monday night.

Still, that concern pales in comparison to the importance of what happens at quarterback — and what that means for everything else — which is why Darnold’s drop-off over the last two weeks is so jarring.

After playing well enough over the first 16 games to lead the Vikings to a 14-2 record and legitimately be in the conversation for NFL MVP, Darnold struggled mightily in the regular-season finale, a 31-9 loss in Detroit. Against the Lions, he completed just 18 of 41 passes for 166 yards, posting his third-worst passer rating (55.5) and his highest bad-throw percentage of the season (34.2).

GO DEEPER

Did Vikings’ struggles against Lions show a blueprint for how to slow down Sam Darnold?

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Those troubles continued against the Rams. His numbers — 25-for-40 passing for 245 yards, a touchdown and an interception — belied Darnold’s level of comfort. He misplaced multiple throws. Darnold, who so often this season had been pinpoint accurate, threw behind his receivers. He spun out of the pocket but failed to get the ball off. His eyes often scanned from right to left too quickly. His feet swiveled back and forth constantly. He tried to evade pass rushers, who engulfed him almost every time.

Darnold’s system malfunctioned in almost every regard. When it wasn’t his vision, it was his footwork. When it wasn’t his vision or his footwork, it was his arm.

“Left too many throws out there that I would usually make,” he said afterward.

Had he said that earlier in his career in New York or Carolina, some might have laughed. But this season, while entrusted in O’Connell’s scheme and developmental process, he proved over a meaningful sample size that he could progress in rhythm, deliver the football accurately and withstand pressure.

Darnold had also displayed resilience, navigating a difficult midseason stretch against the Colts and Jaguars during which he threw five interceptions. The way he responded to those tough film sessions, throwing 18 touchdowns and two interceptions in the ensuing seven games, showed just what he was capable of.

In late December, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported, “After conversations with a team source, one thing is clear: The Vikings want Darnold back in Minnesota for 2025.” Separately, another Vikings staffer texted, “I hope we can keep him.” Darnold’s MVP odds climbed. Against the Packers in the team’s final home game of the season, he completed 33 of 43 passes for 377 yards, three touchdowns and an interception and was soaked by teammates afterward in the locker room.

The Sam Darnold experience continues. pic.twitter.com/k5db9DYdtp

— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) December 30, 2024

This 2024 Vikings season, billed as a transition year toward a more flexible future around rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, had exceeded even the rosiest expectations.

“Outside of these walls, nobody really believed in him,” running back Aaron Jones said of Darnold at the time. “Nobody gave him a chance. But he’s proving everybody wrong.”

That was the crescendo, a byproduct of an infrastructure optimized in Darnold’s image. At the time, the Vikings staff reiterated the role that rhythm and timing played in Darnold’s success and how important it was for his feet and eyes to sync.

Buried in the jargon was an important reality: Darnold trusted the play calls and reads so much that it was more about sticking to a specific timing than observing the field and making decisions based on what he saw. The best way to sum up his struggles in Detroit and Arizona was an interruption in timing. Both the Lions and Rams affected Darnold’s ability to climb up in the pocket, and both teams mixed in countless stunts and exotic pressures to keep Darnold from being comfortable, assessing the picture downfield and throwing.

There were numerous examples from Monday night. Early in the second quarter, Darnold dropped back and eyed the right sideline. Rams defensive lineman Braden Fiske pushed Vikings left guard Blake Brandel toward Darnold, who side-stepped and kept his eyes on receiver Jordan Addison, while receiver Jalen Nailor was open crossing the field. Darnold hurled a pass in Addison’s direction. But the ball was late and behind Addison, and it was intercepted by Rams cornerback Cobie Durant.

Later in the quarter, the Rams blitzed safety Quentin Lake from depth. He squeaked past right guard Dalton Risner, forcing Darnold to step up and move his vision from right to left. Uncertain with what he was seeing, he looked back to his right. But before he could release the ball, another blitzer, Rams cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, speared him in the back. Darnold fumbled, and Rams edge rusher Jared Verse recovered and rumbled 57 yards for a touchdown, extending Los Angeles’ lead.

JARED VERSE SCOOP AND SCORE!

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“There are some examples where, when you go back and watch the tape in an air-conditioned room tomorrow, it’s going to feel like, ‘Man, why didn’t I just do this or that?’” O’Connell said. “But it’s hard in the moment. It’s hard with how fast things happen out there.”

Good quarterbacks have the arm and the athleticism, especially in the modern NFL, but the mind is what separates the top-tier QBs. Matthew Stafford’s operating capacity on the other side of the field validated this, and Monday night substantiated a popular opinion regarding the Vikings’ future: Franchise-tagging or extending Darnold, who is set to become a free agent, does not make sense with the team’s needs elsewhere, especially on the interior of the offensive line.

Moving on from Darnold would, of course, raise questions. How ready is McCarthy? Which veteran option might the Vikings pair with McCarthy? And how would O’Connell feel about having to build up an entirely new quarterback option?

These are vastly different questions from the ones on Wilf’s mind as he wound his way through the bowels of the stadium Monday night. But they’ll soon be on his plate following a wildly successful season that ended in a disappointing flash, a roller-coaster ride for a quarterback who could not polish off the progress he’d built.

(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)