The Minnesota Vikings signing quarterback Kyler Murray is one of the more fascinating during free agency. Nobody knows how well it will go, but the comparisons to Sam Darnold are fascinating.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t![\"Arizona](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/USATSI_27466684-scaled.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) throws the ball over Tennessee Titans linebacker Jihad Ward (53)at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Oct. 5, 2025.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Rondone\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The quarterback position for the Minnesota Vikings was the biggest reason why they didn\u2019t make the playoffs in 2025. The combination of J.J. McCarthy<\/a>, Carson Wentz<\/a>, and Max Brosmer<\/a> combined to win just nine games, and a tiebreaker kept them out.<\/p>\n It was extra frustrating for the Vikings because they wouldn\u2019t commit to Sam Darnold long-term after winning 14 games for them in 2024. He went on to win the Super Bowl in his first season with the Seattle Seahawks. That failure prompted the Vikings to heavily pursue Kyler Murray, and now their quarterback room is in a much better spot.<\/p>\n Kyler Murray compares well to Sam Darnold with one key difference<\/p>\n When you look at the similarities with Murray and Darnold from a production standpoint, they are very similar. The one area where they don\u2019t compare is how their defenses helped them out.<\/p>\n The Athletic\u2019s Mike Sando highlighted that discrepancy, along with an interesting tidbit on how Brian Flores\u2019 impact.<\/p>\n Murray is one of 29 quarterbacks to start at least 25 games over the past three seasons. He ranks 17th among them in quarterback EPA per start, about the same as Sam Darnold, who ranks 16th. The difference: Darnold\u2019s Vikings and Seahawks averaged +7.5 combined EPA on defense and special teams in his starts, which ranked No. 1 in the 29-quarterback sample. Murray\u2019s Cardinals averaged -2.5 combined EPA on defense\/special teams, worst in the sample.<\/p>\n This all points to Murray\u2019s record improving significantly in Minnesota, unless the defense falls off.<\/p>\n \u201cThey lost some pieces on defense and had to shed a lot of cap,\u201d another exec said. \u201cWithout a GM in place, I\u2019d imagine (defensive coordinator) Brian Flores is very involved in what decisions are being made on defense, and he\u2019ll be able to adjust. That should give them some comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n The Athletic’s mike sando<\/p>\n Title<\/p>\n We often look at quarterback play based on the success of the entire team. Is that necessarily fair? Absolutely not, but that\u2019s the reality we face on a regular basis.<\/p>\n Murray played well enough for the Cardinals to win regularly, but he was consistently let down by, not average defensive play, but horrible play. Now, imagine playing with the defenses that Flores runs and how much better that gets.<\/p>\n All Murray has to do is play the same brand of football he has been playing, and things could get really interesting.<\/p>\n \t\t\t Minnesota Vikings News<\/p>\n The 2026 Minnesota Vikings\u2019 season now have an official start date with OTAs close to beginning, signaling the start of the Kyler Murray vs. J.J. McCarthy quarterback battle.<\/p>\n \t\t\t Minnesota Vikings News<\/p>\n The Minnesota Vikings were really smart to sign Kyler Murray as quickly as they did, especially after the contract Kirk Cousins got from the Las Vegas Raiders would have complicated things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Vikings signing quarterback Kyler Murray is one of the more fascinating during free agency. Nobody knows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,4827,233,259,2529,6,1878,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-854042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kyler-murray","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-minnesotavikings","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sam-darnold","15":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116348767834672412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854042","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=854042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Darnold has a league-best 28-7 (.800) starting record among those 29 quarterbacks over this three-year span. Murray\u2019s record is only 13-17 (.433).<\/p>\n![\"Jul](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/USATSI_26734859-200x200.jpg\")
\t\t<\/p>\n![\"Nov](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/USATSI_27499864-200x200.jpg\")
\t\t<\/p>\n