Sam Darnold’s 2025 Team, Tom Brady’s Vikings Take, Wes Phillips

Vikings Land Purple Rumor Mill It is a two-day chronic every week. All the rumors of the week have been lassoed and placed in two spots for review, Saturday and Sunday’s articles. Today is the December 15 issue.

Purple Rumor Mill: Sam Darnold’s 2025 Team, Tom Brady’s Vikings Take, Wes Phillips

Remember – rumors rumors. The things you read in these articles on the weekends are not the things that will come to fruition, but the things the world is talking about about the Vikings.

Here is the second party of the week. can be read yesterday Here.

Rumor: The dark horse candidate for Sam Darnold’s next team is the Los Angeles Rams.

Los Angeles Rams signal-caller Matthew Stafford will turn 37 in two months, and one lingering question about the course of his career is his longevity.

Can he continue to perform at a relatively high level, or will his skills begin to decline like, say, Kirk Cousins ​​in Atlanta? Tom Brady set the standard before retiring after the 2022 season, but not everyone succeeds on the football field until their late 40s.

Aaron Rodgers can attest to that.

Although Stafford has not given any hints about retirement, it would not be strange if he announced that he will retire from the sport after this season. That’s what older quarterbacks eventually do. If Stafford makes that leap this summer, you better believe Sean McVay can repeat what Kevin O’Connell did for Darnold’s career in Minnesota.

Vikings fans spent months dreaming and predicting that Darnold would have a “Baker Mayfield-like” season in 2024, and those assumptions came true — and then some. If Darnold leaves the Vikings for the Rams and clings on to that team as their permanent quarterback, the Mayfield comparisons will continue in full force.

If Stafford had retired, Darnold would have made it in Hollywood.

Rumor: Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the NFL, according to Tom Brady, and he gets the nod from Ja’Marr Chase, who is very popular right now.

This week, Brady insinuated that wide receiver Justin Jefferson is the best wide receiver in the sport amid the “Ja’Marr Chase or Justin Jefferson” debate. For Brady, who is considered by many to be the greatest football player of all time, that person is Jefferson.

asked Brady. Fox Sports He posts who he would throw the rock to if he could throw it to anyone in the NFL. he answered“Great question. There are a few tough choices. I know what kind of year Ja’Marr Chase has had, but I say Justin Jefferson. He can do anything from any point on the field. It goes deep. It’s going short. Catch the ball, catch and run, score a goal, third down. He’s a ridiculous player.”

“Jefferson reminds me of my former teammate and fellow Viking Randy Moss. “So if it came down to picking just one guy, right now it would be him,” Brady added of Jefferson.

Few outside the state of Ohio disagree.

Rumor: Wes Phillips talked about Sam Darnold’s future this week, and he sounds like a guy heading to a new team in the offseason.

Sam Darnold will likely play elsewhere in 2025, Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said.

“I think we all know that Sam is going to be the type of man that’s wanted no matter where he ends up. Whatever his future is, I know all of us in this building will be happy for him, whatever his outcome. I don’t think he needs to worry about that anymore.” Phillips told reporters:.

Minnesota drafted rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy last April, and the team appears ready to hand him the QB1 flag next year. McCarthy canceled his rookie campaign by tearing his meniscus in mid-August.

“Hopefully he would say: ‘Hey, the work I’ve put out so far will look to the future. The only thing I really have to worry about is right now.”

“The concern might have been: ‘Okay, this could be my opportunity to play.’ Past all this. He proved the doubters and proved that he can play in this league. Let’s make this the best season possible that we can have,” Phillips continued.

“Sam really paid attention to all the clichés: Be where your feet stand; be in the moment; Let’s go 1-0 this week; Let’s worry about this game plan. Praise or no praise (and he’s had a lot this year) he hasn’t let it affect him and when the games aren’t going, we want it or he wants it, he hasn’t let it affect him. “He’s been consistent in his behavior, his approach, his work ethic, and that’s where we want to be. The most important game is the next game, and we’re in Chicago this week.”

Darnold has nearly 4,300 passing yards, 38 total touchdowns and 13 interceptions this season. This production will likely net him a contract worth between $40-50 million in 2025.

Phillips has a golden opportunity to say something in this area: “Sam is our quarterback right now, and I’m not handling his contract next year.”

But he didn’t do this.

Phillips basically stated the obvious: The Vikings will not deviate from the JJ McCarthy plan. He will come.

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dustin baker He is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The program, which is prepared with 4-7 episodes per week, includes guests, analyzes and opinions on everything related to the purple team. The MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Guilty pleasures listed: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos’, Basset Hounds and The Doors (band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; All contract information provided by OverTheCap.com.