The road to finding the right quarterback might have gotten bumpier for New York
The New York Giants’ path to finding the right quarterback for 2025, and beyond, was never going to be easy. Wild Card Weekend of the NFL playoffs might have made that path even more treacherous.
Let’s start with Sam Darnold.
After a 14-3 regular season for the Minnesota Vikings during which Darnold played the best football of his seven-year career, there has been a lot of chatter that the Vikings might commit to Darnold for 2025, perhaps longer than that, and put 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy on the trade block.
In that scenario, the Giants would be a logical suitor even though they passed on McCarthy in the draft. We have already spent a lot of time discussing that possibility:
- Big Blue View mailbag: The J.J. McCarthy edition
- The New York Giants need a quarterback, or two, so what are their options?
Darnold’s awful play Monday night in a 27-9 loss the Los Angeles Rams, on the heels of a similarly horrific effort in a 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions that determined the NFC North champion, may have blown up that possibility.
Darnold completed 25 of 40 passes for 245 yards. He was often uncertain where to go with the ball and took nine sacks, many of them his own fault. He threw an interception. He lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.
A week earlier, Darnold was just 18 of 41 (43.9%) for 166 yards in that critical, lopsided loss to the Lions that cost the Vikings a chance to host a playoff game. ESPN Research showed that 23 of Darnold’s 81 passes in those two games (28.4%) were considered off-target.
In the Vikings’ two biggest games of the season, their resurgent quarterback came up small.
Darnold can be a free agent this offseason. Monday night, Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell did not sound like he expected Darnold to be a Viking in 2025.
The way Kevin O’Connell talks about Sam Darnold here really signals that he’s gone
“I think that can stay with him moving forward… Sam and that journey him and I went on will always be something that’s a special place in my heart.” pic.twitter.com/noQChHpGNh
— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) January 14, 2025
So, do you want Darnold after the way he looked the past few weeks. A month or so ago, some were mentioning him in the MVP race and it looked like he could be headed toward a mega-contract if he reached free agency?
Now? Can anybody be sure that paying Darnold a multi-year, big-money deal isn’t making the Daniel Jones mistake again?
What about Russell Wilson and Justin Fields?
Wilson and Fields can each be free agents, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are not likely to keep both. Maybe, the way the season ended, they won’t keep either one.
Wilson, who will turn 37 next season, still throws a pretty deep ball. How much else, though, does he really do that resembles quality quarterback play? The Steelers finished the season losing five straight games with Wilson at quarterback, and never scored more than 17 points in any of those games. Wilson had acceptable stats in those losses, but couldn’t get his team into the end zone enough. Sound familiar?
What about Fields? Yes, he will be just 26 and theoretically still has some upside. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin replaced him as the starter as soon as he could, and never went back to him while Pittsburgh was losing five straight games and not scoring enough points. That can’t breed any confidence that he can do better elsewhere.
So, no, this was not a good weekend for the Giants in their search for an upgrade at quarterback.
