{"id":766186,"date":"2026-02-21T06:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766186\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T06:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:01:20","slug":"nfl-analyst-predicts-next-sam-darnold-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766186\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Analyst Predicts ‘Next Sam Darnold’ For 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Darnold has completely changed the narrative surrounding his NFL<\/a> career, turning himself from a draft bust into a Pro Bowl quarterback and Super Bowl<\/a> champion.<\/p>\n

Darnold’s comeback started in 2024 with the Minnesota Vikings<\/a>. He had 4,319 passing yards and 35 touchdowns right before hitting free agency. Despite going 14-3 as their starter, they let him sign a three-year, $100.5 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks<\/a>. That turned out to be quite the investment for Seattle’s front office.<\/p>\n

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Not only did Darnold have an efficient regular season with the Seahawks, he played turnover-free football during their run to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

With the NFL offseason finally here, Fox Sports personality Danny Parkins predicted which quarterback will have a career turnaround similar to Darnold’s. He believes Kyler Murray could be in store for a successful 2026 season if he joins the Vikings.<\/p>\n

“I would not rush to the cleanest path to start or the most money. I’d make an investment in myself,” Parkins said. <\/a>“If you’re getting all that money from Arizona, go to Minnesota and compete with J.J. McCarthy. All of a sudden, if you beat out JJ McCarthy, you’ve got Brian Flores’ defense, Kevin O’Connell calling plays, and you’re throwing the ball to Justin Jefferson in a dome.”<\/p>\n

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\"Nov<\/p>\n

Nov 3, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) looks on from the field before the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images&period;<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images&period;)Will Kyler end up in Minnesota?<\/p>\n

SKOR North\u2019s Phil Mackey<\/a>\u00a0reported last week that Murray \u201cwould be interested\u201d in playing for the Vikings\u00a0next season. ESPN\u2019s Kevin Seifert, meanwhile, said he expects Minnesota to \u201ctake a big swing\u201d for a quarterback this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the big picture, McCarthy is a talented player who just turned 23 and has a total of 10\u00a0NFL<\/a>\u00a0starts. Few NFL teams would give up on a quarterback with that profile, and many team builders are particularly enamored with optimizing a quarterback\u2019s rookie contract. Adofo-Mensah was one of them, but his departure is a reminder of the range of outcomes that approach can lead to,\u201d\u00a0Seifert said<\/a>. \u201cIf anything, these events increase the chances that the Vikings will take a big swing at finding a veteran quarterback who could start in 2026. The only thing more damaging than making the mistakes the Vikings made last season would be to repeat them this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Trading for Murray won’t be easy, that’s for sure. The former No. 1 pick is owed $36.8 million in fully guaranteed salary and bonuses for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

If the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> cut Murray, there’s no question teams will line up for a chance to sign him.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on Feb 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Darnold has completely changed the narrative surrounding his NFL career, turning himself from a draft bust into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[375,390,257,44614,7,1519,64879,2780,4827,259,6,1878,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-766186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-danny-parkins","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-j-j-mccarthy","14":"tag-jerome-miron-imagn","15":"tag-justin-jefferson","16":"tag-kyler-murray","17":"tag-minnesota-vikings","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-sam-darnold","20":"tag-seattle-seahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116107103465554056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}