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00:00I thought the Minnesota Vikings entered week 18 against the Detroit Lions with a very easy
00:08decision to make at the quarterback position.
00:12Bring back Sam Darnold, let him be your starting quarterback, and do not rush J.J. McCarthy.
00:20Darnold's play through the first 17 weeks, 16 games certainly earned him that starting
00:27job with McCarthy coming off of, I believe, multiple knee surgeries, but ultimately again,
00:35you know, a huge injury this off season and throughout this season.
00:43You don't want to rush him.
00:44There's no reason to do that if you were the Minnesota Vikings through your first 16 games.
00:53Then there was the Darnold performance against Detroit.
00:55That was concerning.
00:57That was not great, obviously.
00:59It was arguably his worst game of the season.
01:01It was undeniably one of his three worst of the season.
01:07And you had to hope for a number of reasons, right?
01:13Well, next week will be better.
01:15Next week when we go out there and take the field in LA against LA in Arizona, Darnold
01:24is going to be better.
01:27And he wasn't at all.
01:30Darnold was arguably worse than the week before.
01:33Again, gave you one of his worst performances of the season.
01:40And now for Minnesota, the decision is probably just as easy.
01:51It's just a completely different decision, which is you let Sam Darnold go, you thank
01:58him for a fun season, but you obviously cannot go at it again with Sam Darnold.
02:06Not with a first round draft pick that people were excited about behind him.
02:11Not with a first round draft pick that some thought would ultimately beat Darnold out
02:15for the job this year had health not been able to get in the way.
02:21You cannot have Darnold and the season with these two performances and then trot him out
02:28week number one next year.
02:30You can't do it.
02:31You can't because Sam Darnold and his play through 16 weeks, it seems was going to command
02:40him let's say around a $40 million contract annually, maybe 30 if the market was logical,
02:50but it doesn't ever seem we do that, especially at the quarterback position.
02:56And Minnesota paying Darnold that much money would have been again, acceptable if there
03:04if it wasn't with this ending, because you already have McCarthy on a cheap deal.
03:11You can make things work.
03:14If you were Minnesota, well, Sam Darnold cost himself millions of millions and millions
03:21of dollars these last two weeks, undoubtedly about truly about as costly a two weeks as
03:28you will ever see in NFL history.
03:32What happened with Sam Darnold's performances in those two games?
03:37It is hard to imagine though, that Darnold is going to go from commanding a potential
03:4540 million annual contract, right?
03:51Where it's maybe a three year deal.
03:53You can get out after two, right?
03:56The Daniel Jones contract to backup quarterback money.
04:03And that's what he would be in Minnesota.
04:05He would be a backup quarterback.
04:08So now if you were Minnesota, the decision is kind of made for you.
04:15You just have to let him go.