Latest report on Vikings QB Sam Darnold could seriously alter free agency by putting the ball in his court

Sam Darnold has contract offer from Vikings

The latest report from NFL Network's Tom Pelissero came from an appearance from The Rich Eisen Show. The newest wrinkle here is that Darnold has a contract offer on the table from the Vikings.

"Some of the initial dominoes here are going to be what happens with Sam Darnold. The Vikings have an offer out to him. They have been in talks. They chose not to use the franchise tag, which is probably a pretty good indication that Sam Darnold's market is a little bit lighter than what people have been expecting on the outside. Does Sam Darnold decided to go back on, effectively, a one-year deal in Minnesota? And, you know, be the guy until he's not the guy with JJ McCarthy sitting there breathing down his neck. Does he decide I'm going to go someplace else, whether that's on another one-year deal, or it's on a multi-year deal? There are several teams that have an interest level in Sam Darnold, but I don't get the sense that there's somebody blowing him away with a monster multi-year contract. Otherwise, you probably already would have had the Vikings pivoting off of that and going to the next thing. So that's one of the big dominoes here, which in turn impacts Daniel Jones, who would be in all likelihood, plan B in addition to obviously having JJ McCarthy there."

This is the first time we've heard that Darnold was offered a contract by the Vikings. It's also not a big surprise either. The Vikings did the exact same thing with Kirk Cousins last season. It ended up being somewhat of a lowball offer, which isn't much of a surprise, especially since the Vikings like to control the news cycle with their free agents. 

If the Vikings did offer Darnold a contract like Pelissero said, it's likely the only one that he will get from the franchise. Will he agree to terms and sign on the bottom line? Time will tell there, but it's an important element to the conversation.