Report: Sam Darnold, Seahawks Agree to $110.5M Contract After Vikings Exit, Geno Trade

It looks like the Seattle Seahawks have found their replacement for Geno Smith.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported on Monday that Darnold agreed to a three-year deal with the Seahawks. ESPN's Adam Schefter noted the contract is for $110.5 million contract with $55 million guaranteed.

The 27-year-old will likely take over the starting role after the Seahawks traded Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders.

Darnold is coming off his best season ever. He threw for 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions en route to earning his first Pro Bowl nod.

Last offseason, it wasn't a foregone conclusion that Darnold would be Minnesota's Week 1 starter or finish out the year in the role after the Vikings used the 10th overall pick on Michigan's J.J. McCarthy.

As the season unfolded and with McCarthy sidelined, however, the conversation shifted to how much it might take for the Vikings to keep Darnold amid his renaissance. Maybe he could serve as a bridge to McCarthy in 2025 or perhaps even be a long-term solution.

Then came Minnesota's final two games.

The Vikings were soundly beaten 31-9 by the Detroit Lions in Week 18, when they could've clinched a division title and the NFC's top seed. Then they lost 27-9 to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Wild Card Round.

On both occasions, Darnold's performance left a lot to be desired. He went 18-of-41 for 166 yards against the Lions and then was sacked nine times against the Rams, which tied an NFL playoff record.

With those two games, people started to wonder whether Darnold's regular season was more of a mirage or if his finish was merely an unflattering outlier that didn't reflect any larger concerns.

In January, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler predicted Darnold to wind up on the Las Vegas Raiders and reported that "most execs polled believe Darnold belongs in the Geno Smith/Baker Mayfield class of contracts, somewhere in the range of three years and $100 million."

Another thing Smith and Mayfield have done is show the unexpectedly strong seasons they enjoyed, which they parlayed into those big contracts, weren't an aberration. They remained solid starters for the Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, respectively.

That's worth nothing within the context of looking toward the future with Darnold. Maybe there isn't another breakthrough to come, but he could settle in as a mid-tier quarterback, which is pretty much where his new contract puts him.

This still amounts to a gamble for the Seahawks because he could regress back to his New York Jets and Carolina Panthers days, but it's not a massive overpay in a market as inflated as the one for quarterbacks.

And for the Vikings, it's not hard to see why they wanted to go in a new direction. They clearly believed in McCarthy's potential, and he has done nothing to prove their opinion wrong yet.

At a certain point, the franchise needs to see what it has with the 22-year-old. Maybe he pans out. Maybe it takes little time to discover he's simply not it.

By letting Darnold walk, the Vikings are showing they intend to find out.