Sam Darnold and the 10-2 Minnesota Vikings were one of the biggest surprises of the 2024 NFL season, but that has reportedly not led to contract negotiations between the quarterback and the team.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Sunday that Minnesota and Darnold “have not had discussions about a long-term contract,” which is notable since the signal-caller is expected to be a free agent next offseason.

Quarterback was a major focus for the Vikings this offseason, especially since they didn’t bring back Kirk Cousins.

It was easy to assume the NFC North team would start JJ McCarthy when they selected the Michigan quarterback with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. After all, he had just led the Wolverines to the national championship, and starting a new era in the same offseason that Cousins ​​was traded to the Atlanta Falcons made sense from a timing standpoint.

At the very least, 2024 could have been a year where the franchise reset and focused on McCarthy’s future.

However, McCarthy was forced to sit out the season early on due to a knee injury, which meant Minnesota had to rely on veteran Darnold as a starter rather than a backup player.

Such roles hadn’t exactly worked out for him in the past. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft had a combined record of 21-35 in 56 starts for the New York Jets, Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers over the first six years of his career.

Most of those starts came with the Jets when he was 13-25 and never lived up to the high expectations placed on him based on his draft status.

However, Darnold has looked like a different quarterback this season, completing 67.6 percent of his passes for 2,952 yards, 23 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. It helps to have weapons like Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, Jordan Addison and TJ Hockenson, but no one could have realistically expected that to be the case early in the season.

This has put the Vikings in a difficult situation as they likely want to see if McCarthy can be the franchise quarterback for the future.

Still, Darnold played well enough to earn a new contract and will likely make the playoffs in first place this season. All that remains to be seen is whether the new deal will be with Minnesota or somewhere else.