PFF Names Top Destination for Sam Darnold in 2025

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Sam Darnold and his Minnesota Vikings will play a postseason game in a few hours, an event that could determine his 2025 status with the team or his pocketbook with a new organization.

PFF Names Top Destination for Sam Darnold in 2025

It’s for all the marbles against the Los Angeles Rams, a playoff game shaking down in Glendale, Arizona after the NFL moved the showdown due to Southern California wildfires.

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And because NFL free agency is just two months away, folks have theories on destinations for players scheduled to be on the move. According to Pro Football Focus, the Las Vegas Raiders represent the best fit for Darnold, 27, in an article detailing a free agent each team should sign.

“The Raiders’ improbable, late-season string of wins knocked them down to the No. 6 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, which likely means they won’t be able to land Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders unless they trade up. Instead, it would be smart to sign a free-agent quarterback — even in a very limited market — while bolstering one of numerous weak points via the draft,” PFF’s Bradley Locker explained.

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Darnold produced 4,319 passing yards, 36 total touchdowns, and 12 interceptions this season. Per market value, his next team should pay him between $40 and $50 million in 2025 and beyond, assuming he doesn’t utterly faceplant on Monday night in the playoffs.

Locker added about Darnold to Raiders: “Darnold’s price tag will probably exceed $150 million based on the year he’s put together in 2024. In his first season with the Vikings, the former No. 3 overall pick ranks 10th among qualifiers with an 80.3 PFF passing grade in addition to eighth in big-time throw rate (5.6%) and fifth in wins above replacement. Assuming the Vikings hand the reins to J.J. McCarthy, the Raiders feel like one of the more likely Darnold landing spots, holding the second-most cap space ($107 million).”

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The Raiders embarked on the 2024 campaign with Gardner Minshew at Aidan O’Connell at quarterback, later adding Desmond Ridder when injuries mounted. The plan emphatically did not work, which most saw coming because Las Vegas was the only team in the NFL without at least some sort of long-term quarterback plan for the future.

Now, evidently, it must ponder adding Darnold, a different free-agent quarterback, drafting Ward or Sanders, all of the above, or some of those options.

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Las Vegas also fired head coach Antonio Pierce after one full season last week.

If Darnold leaves the Vikings but does not join the Raiders, other clubs like the New York Giants, Tennessee Titans, Seattle Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers, or Los Angeles Rams (if Matthew Stafford retires) could nibble around his free agency.

Minnesota would likely hand the QB1 scepter to the aforementioned McCarthy if Darnold departed in free agency.

Darnold will turn 28 in June.

Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL. 

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.