The Vikings are sitting at 5-0, and the quarterback picture in Minnesota still has no clean answer beyond this season. Kyler Murray, signed in the offseason to a one-year, $1.3 million deal with a no-tag clause, has started three of those wins. No matter how this year plays out, the Vikings are headed toward another offseason with a starter due to hit free agency, and nobody can say with any certainty who the 2027 answer will be.
That uncertainty gets more interesting because of what’s unfolding in Seattle with Sam Darnold.
Darnold, who led Minnesota to a 14-3 record in 2024 before signing a three-year, $100.5 million deal with the Seahawks, has had a shaky start out west. Through five games, he has completed 60.4% of his passes for 1,033 yards, seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. His passer rating sits at 77.4, and the interceptions are the bigger problem: they’re tied with Drake Maye for second-most in the NFL behind only Justin Herbert, who has eight.
The Seahawks are 3-3 entering Week 7, and Darnold’s availability has already been an issue. He exited the opener against New England after one series with a hip injury and missed Seattle’s Week 2 win at Arizona. The Seahawks have gone 2-3 in his starts this season.
According to Dan Graziano of ESPN, Seattle could move on from Darnold before a $10 million roster bonus vests in March. Graziano reported that Darnold is due $35.5 million in 2027, but none of it is guaranteed. That gives the Seahawks a decision point before March 16, with four more weeks to sort it out than they had a year ago.
Graziano wrote: “I’m a bit curious about Sam Darnold’s situation, as he’ll have one year left on his contact after this season. He is scheduled to make $35.5 million in 2027, but none of that money is guaranteed.
There is a $10 million roster bonus that vests on the fifth day of the league year (March 16), so the Seahawks will want to decide by then whether they want him on next year’s team. But if they do, they’d also look to extend him beyond that.”
He also noted the contrast with last offseason, when $17.5 million of Darnold’s 2026 money became guaranteed after the Super Bowl, a move that was easy to make after Seattle’s title run.
Darnold’s overall production last season was much stronger. In 2025, he threw for 4,048 yards, 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The year before that, in Minnesota, he posted 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns, a season that changed the course of his career and added to Kevin O’Connell’s reputation as a quarterback developer.
Seattle’s backup situation has only added more intrigue. Drew Lock has completed 35 of 48 passes for 422 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in limited action this season, and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported that he has also been impressing behind the scenes.
The Vikings also scrambled their own long-term picture when they traded J.J. McCarthy to the New York Giants on Sept. 28 for a 2027 fifth-round pick. That move wiped out any obvious quarterback plan beyond Murray, and there’s a real chance Murray won’t be back either.
Murray has been solid when he has played, but he has only appeared in three full games plus 11 snaps in Week 1. In five games, he has completed 69 of 101 passes for 662 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
If he keeps playing like he did in Week 5 against the Saints, he could command $50 million per year on a multiyear deal. If he doesn’t stay on that track, Minnesota may not want to go there at all.
The Vikings’ quarterback future, then, could come back around to a familiar name. If Seattle decides to cut bait on Darnold before his bonus vests, the door could open for Minnesota to take another look. And with both franchises staring at uncertain quarterback decisions, the timing lines up in a way that keeps Darnold very much in the conversation.
In Other News...
Vikings Rookie Could Be Forcing A Linebacker Decision
Jake Golday has spent most of his first NFL season on the margins of the Vikings defense, but the rookie linebacker is starting to make a case for a larger role. With the team coming out of its bye week, Minnesota has reason to take a harder look at its depth at linebacker, especially with defensive coordinator Brian Flores signaling that the younger players will need to help carry the load moving forward.
Goldays recent work has put him on the radar at the same time Ivan Pace Jr. has seen his own snaps trimmed, creating a little more room for movement in the rotation. The Vikings do not need to force anything if the fit is not right, but they do need answers as the season stretches on, and Golday has put himself in position to be part of that discussion. [Read more 🡒]
Vikings Fans Are Reopening The J.J. McCarthy Debate Fast
J.J. McCarthy finally got a meaningful run of snaps in Week 6, and it did not take long for the old Minnesota questions to come roaring back. In his first significant game action for the Giants against the Saints, he completed 11 of 21 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown, a reminder of the talent that made him such a talked-about prospect in the first place.
For Vikings fans, the reaction has been familiar: a mix of what might have been and what never really had a chance to fully develop in Minnesota. McCarthys brief run with the Vikings was cut short by injuries, and even now the conversation around him is less about where he is than what the Vikings were able to see before everything went sideways. [Read more 🡒]
Blake Cashman Just Gave Vikings Fans Another Reason To Believe
Blake Cashman has become one of the quieter reasons Minnesotas defense has looked so sturdy through the first five games. In his third season with the Vikings, the linebacker has supplied 2.5 sacks and has been one of the teams most disruptive pass rushers, leading the club in QB pressure rate among players with at least 30 pass-rush snaps. With Minnesota sitting at 5-0 and backing that record with a top-ranked defense, Cashmans rise fits neatly into the bigger picture of a group that has found a way to look both fast and connected.
Cashman has also been willing to talk about the bigger prize, and that matters in a market that has waited a long time for a true championship run. He spoke openly about wanting the Vikings to win a Super Bowl and what it would mean for the state, which is exactly the kind of mindset a locker room can feed off when the season starts to feel like something more than a hot streak. For now, the defense is doing its part, and Cashman keeps adding to the sense that this team is not just winning early but chasing something far more meaningful. [Read more 🡒]