Sam Darnold after two bad games hasn’t torpedoed his chances for a big payday to finish the season… at least that’s what the NFL super agent does. Lee Steinberg thinks – tells TMZ Sports He believes the Minnesota Vikings will continue to stick with him as the franchise quarterback.
Darnold, the No. 3 overall pick in 2018, had a career renaissance in 2024-25 … throwing for more than 4,300 yards and 35 touchdowns as he led the Vikes to a 14-3 record.
His hot streak ended, though … the team’s Super Bowl dreams ended Monday after a poor performance against the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card round.
All that said, Steinberg believes the organization will look at the big picture, not just Darnold’s last two games, and ultimately decide to keep No. 14 under center despite the first-round pick. JJ McCarthy in the list.
“I think at the end of the day, it is,” Steinberg said, “because if you look at his entire body of work, it was playing very well and he was a franchise quarterback anyway; he lit it up during the season.”
Steinberg, the true inspiration behind the movie “Jerry Maguire,” added that the Vikers can’t get too excited about how Darnold performed in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions and Monday’s 27-9 loss, but feels that they understand that this does not reflect what he is capable of doing on the network.
If Minnesota does, a nice pay raise would be on the horizon for Darnold … as he signed a one-year, $10 million contract through his all-star season in 2024.
Steinberg’s guess is pretty educated, after all, he’s pitched such huge names Patrick Mahomes, Troy Aikman and: Steve Young … so he knows the ins and outs of the NFL.
Steinberg also talked to us about himself the basiscreated to help with concussion awareness, prevention and treatment, and shares an incredibly exciting development in the field.
