Vikings QB Sam Darnold brought lessons from San Francisco to Minnesota

“Being able to prepare and be ready like I was the starter, but just sit back and watch everything that was going on in the organization, how things were run there,” Darnold said. “I really did learn a ton from Brock and the way he prepared, his quiet confidence that he had every single day. He’s not the rah-rah guy, not going to lead the team in breakdowns at the end of the year, but he’s just as steady as they come.”

Darnold said Purdy and the 49ers system also helped him understand “the role of a quarterback.”

“Watching Brock dish the ball out to guys, especially first and second down,” Darnold added. “If what we’re hunting up concept wise isn’t there, just to be able to check the ball down and let our guys run with it. Just understanding better the role of a quarterback.”

Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, whose NFL career began in San Francisco as a quantitative analyst from 2013 to 2019, said Darnold’s time with the 49ers was a pull in signing him.

“You know the type of training they’re going to be getting, what’s emphasized,” Adofo-Mensah said on the Aug. 17 broadcast of the Vikings’ preseason game against the Browns. “Talking about feet and eyes, different things like that, we know that they play a similar way. Frankly, similar offenses are going to shop in the same areas. They have Josh Dobbs, we have Sam Darnold because we definitely respect each other and what we do in the passing game.”

On the 49ers practice fields last year, Darnold first dove into the rigidness of the West Coast offense run by 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who leads a similar system to that which O’Connell brought to the Vikings from the Rams. Drop-back steps and eye progression have to be in rhythm, with timely passes hitting windows that often allow receivers to catch and run.