Sam Darnold didn’t torpedo his chances at a big payday after two bad games to finish the season … at least that’s what NFL super-agent Leigh Steinberg thinks — telling TMZ Sports he believes the Minnesota Vikings will stick with him as the franchise quarterback.
Darnold — the No. 3 overall pick in 2018 — had a career resurgence in the 2024-25 campaign … throwing for more than 4,300 yards and 35 touchdowns as he led the Vikes to a 14-3 record.
His hot streak fizzled out down stretch, though … with the team’s Super Bowl dreams coming to an end after a poor outing against the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card round on Monday.
All that being said, Steinberg believes the organization will look at the big picture — not just Darnold’s last two games — and will ultimately decide to keep No. 14 under center, despite having first-round pick J.J. McCarthy on the roster.
“I think so at the end of the day,” Steinberg says, “because if you take his whole body of work, it played very well and he was every bit a franchise quarterback — he lit it up during the season.”
Steinberg — the real-life inspiration for the movie “Jerry Maguire” — added the Vikes can’t be too thrilled with how Darnold performed in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions and in Monday’s 27-9 loss … but feels they understand it doesn’t reflect what he’s capable of doing on the gridiron.
If that’s what Minnesota ends up doing, a nice raise will be on the horizon for Darnold … as he was on a one-year, $10 million deal before his overall stellar 2024 season.
Steinberg’s guess is pretty educated — after all, he’s repped massive names like Patrick Mahomes, Troy Aikman and Steve Young … so he knows the ins and outs of the NFL.
Steinberg also talked to us about his foundation, which was created to help awareness, prevention and cure for concussions … and shared an incredibly exciting development in the field.