Kyler Murray is the Sam Darnold do-over the Vikings desperately needed

It’s exceptionally rare for an NFL team to get a do-over. Damaging mistakes typically last years, and can result in an entire front office shift as a result. The Vikings critically made that mistake a year ago at their quarterback position by putting faith in J.J. McCarthy to be their heir apparent, allowing Sam Darnold to walk in free agency. McCarthy turned into an oft-injured pumpkin, well en route to being a major draft bust, and Darnold, well, he went on to win the Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks.

The decision to let Darnold walk was a critical error, but understandable at the time. Minnesota wasn’t wholly sold that his staggering one-year performance was worth a long-term contract, and they had already invested a trade up, and a first round pick into McCarthy — not wanting to let that go by the wayside. Now they have an almost identical situation with Kyler Murray, and an opportunity to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Murray signed with the Vikings on Thursday evening — a one-year, $1.3M veteran minimum deal that is the best bargain in all of the NFL. With the Cardinals still on the hook to pay Murray $36.8M this season from their prior deal, it’s a move that ensures Murray gets paid, keeps the dire Vikings’ books in order, and most-importantly gives them the starting quarterback they have been lacking. It’s a chance to not only make good on their Darnold error, but perhaps get an even better quarterback out the other side of this deal.

What happened to Kyler Murray?

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Murray seemed destined to take a step up into the NFL’s top tier of quarterbacks. In 2021 he had a spectacular season, finishing with 3,787 passing yards in 14 games, as well as 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions with a 69.2% completion percentage, en route to his second straight Pro Bowl. Then it all fell apart. The following year saw Murray miss six games to injury, the Cardinals didn’t have a solid offensive line, and severely lacked receivers in the wake of losing Christian Kirk, and A.J. Green hitting his age wall. Kliff Kingsbury was fired, and it’s here everything went off the rails.

Arizona hired former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon to be their head coach, who then hired Drew Petzing as his offensive coordinator. Petzing was fine, but it was very much a case of not having a cohesive offensive vision. It was his first job as an NFL offensive coordinator after years in position coaching, and from the jump he seemed to no have a cogent plan for Murray, or the Cardinals. It led to three years of push-and-pull, with Murray lost in the shuffle inside a system that didn’t play to his strengths.

It all reached its nadir in 2025. Murray was effectively benched after five games for Jacoby Brissett due to ineffective play, as well as Gannon’s seat getting too hot. The coach was eventually fired at the conclusion of the season, and Murray was designated as a June 1 cut. The Cardinals are in apparent tank mode, looking to play through 2026 with Brissett once more, seemingly with an eye on the 2027 NFL Draft and its bumper crop of quarterbacks.

What is Murray in 2026?

The bizarre part of all this is that Murray is more or less the same quarterback he’s been his entire career, for better and worse. He remains an excellent deep-ball quarterback with ample athleticism to escape the pass rush and create, particularly when it comes to finding short outlet routes or taking advantage of busted coverage.

Where he struggles is as a pure pocket passer, which has been the M.O. for his entire career. When Murray is taking snaps from under center and asked to stand tall in the pocket, he struggles. Not only does pressure overwhelm him when he’s not taking snaps out of shotgun, but his decision-making is markedly worse both on real, and imagined pressure. In addition, he’s never been a great quarterback when it comes to intermediate timing routes, and it’s unclear whether this stems from a lack of feel for the game, or if it’s a product of not being the best student in the film room.

This all worked well with Kingsbury leading the offense, because his spread allowed Murray to operate almost entirely out of the gun, and give him ample targets to throw deep to. It struggled inside Petzing’s timing-based system.

Can this work in Minnesota?

Absolutely. In fact, it’s the best possible fit for him in the NFL right now among teams with shaky quarterback situations. Not only is head coach Kevin O’Connell known for his ability to tutor quarterbacks, but he runs a system that loves airing out the ball to Justin Jefferson, and Jordan Addison — with 2025 draft pick Ty Felton also having serious deep threat potential.

It’s no coincidence that Darnold broke out when the Vikings asked him to have the highest average depth of target of his career, boasting an 8.4 in 2025. This plays right into Murray’s wheelhouse as a passer, and while Darnold had a better grasp of intermediate routes, Murray brings dual-threat potential and improvization to the table as well.

This is a hand-meet-glove fit that can have major dividends.

Are there any drawback to this signing?

The one thing to watch for is the clauses that Murray’s camp put in this deal. In exchange for accepting the vet-minimum, prove-it deal, there’s a clause that the Vikings can’t put either the franchise or transition tag on him when the season is over.

That means that Murray will either be a free agent in 2027, or the Vikings will need to give him a massive extension if he lives up to the billing. There is no in between. Still, this is a small drawback considering the Vikings are essentially getting a starting QB for nothing, and critically the chance to right the wrong of 2025 when they let Sam Darnold walk.

It’s now in Kyler Murray’s hands, and this season will define if he can return to being a top quarterback, or whether he drifts out of football all together.