Who Should I Start? Jimmy Garoppolo or Sam Darnold

Sunday, January 5, 7:54 PM

Los Angeles Rams Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo made his Rams' debut on Sunday against the Seahawks. Despite playing mostly with second-string skill players, he racked up 334 passing yards to go with two touchdowns and one interception along with five rushing yards. Without much of a ground game, Jimmy G attempted 41 passes finishing with 27 completions (65.8% completion). Next week, he's expected to return to his role as backup QB to Matthew Stafford as the Rams host a game in the Wild Card game. Whenever the Rams' season concludes, the veteran will be a free agent, but his strong showing in Week 18 should help him find work as a backup either with the Rams or another team next season.

Tuesday, February 18, 4:25 PM

ESPN's Kevin Seifert reports that the Minnesota Vikings are in no rush to place the franchise tag on impending free-agent quarterback Sam Darnold despite his career year in 2024. It doesn't mean they won't eventually use it on the 27-year-old signal-caller, and it doesn't rule out the team giving him a multi-year extension. Another option is that the Vikings tag Darnold and then trade him for draft-pick compensation. Keeping Darnold on the tag in 2025 would cost Minnesota around $40 million, which would be a questionable decision with former first-rounder J.J. McCarthy (knee) waiting in the wings as the franchise QB. Seifert believes the most likely scenario is that the team lets Darnold sign elsewhere while saving the tag for a player like cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., who had a career-high six interceptions in 2024. Darnold set career-highs last year across the board but also had just one TD and a 53% completion percentage in the last two games.