The Minnesota Vikings may not have a Sam Darnold problem too much longer. They’ve spent most of the early part of the offseason going back and forth on what to do.

At times they made it seem like they wanted to bring Darnold back; others it felt like they were ready to turn to J.J. McCarthy (possibly even Daniel Jones) for 2025. Now it looks like the decision will be made for them.

The Seattle Seahawks sent Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2025 third round pick. It gives Pete Carroll a familiar face at the most important position. Tom Pelissero said, shortly after announcing the deal, that the Seahawks are contenders for Darnold.

With the move, now the Vikings may not have a choice in bringing Darnold back. The good thing is they were very non-committal on him, hence why they didn’t give him the franchise tag. It also means they don’t feel like they have to potentially overpay to bring him back.

It’s a win-win for both sides; the Seahawks get their quarterback and the Vikings no longer have to toil on what to do nor feel bad about letting Darnold.

The Seattle Seahawks have all the power in where Sam Darnold lands this offseason

The Vikings should get ready to part ways with Darnold. With the Seahawks ready to pounce on Darnold in free agency in a few weeks, the Vikings may not have the leverage they thought they had after the franchise tag deadline passed.

They’ve been extremely indecisive when it comes to what they want to do with Darnold. Now that he’s in the open market and the Seahawks are going to be aggressive in pursuing him, the Vikings might not be fortunate enough to bring him back on a cheap deal.

The Seahawks have probably been eyeing Darnold as Smith’s replacement for some time now, that’s the only reason I could see them moving on from Smith right now. The Vikings have spent too much time dwelling on what to do.

Hopefully this move finally forces them to make a decision. They’re so scared about making the wrong decision that they’re delaying making up their mind.

The Vikings chose not to tag Darnold. Now they’ll have to live with that decision one way or the other. If they truly wanted Darnold that bad, they should have worked to either get a deal done or franchise tag him to buy time.

I guess now they’re going to gear up for the J.J. McCarthy era. Which is essentially what they wanted anyway. Maybe they felt the pressure to bring Darnold back because of the regular season he had.

Now that decision is out of their hands. Darnold should want to be somewhere he’s wanted. According to Tom Pelissero, that’s Seattle. Maybe this was the Seahawks’ plan this whole time.