The Minnesota Vikings were one of several NFL teams to use a first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to select a quarterback that could become the face of the franchise.
An injury to rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy will see that plan take a backseat as Sam Darnold is likely to be the starter for the Vikings for the entire 2024 NFL season.
What Happened: The Kansas City Chiefs remain the favorite with sportsbooks to win a record third-straight Super Bowl, but the odds of the Vikings winning a Super Bowl shrunk with the latest injury news.
Odds at DraftKings Inc DKNG currently lists the Vikings with odds of +8,000 to win the Super Bowl, compared to +7,500 months ago. The Vikings have odds of +300 to make the NFL Playoffs and rank last in the odds to win the NFC North division at odds of +950.
The Vikings didn’t extend a contract with former quarterback Kirk Cousins, who later signed with the Atlanta Falcons.
The Falcons have current odds of +3,000 to win the Super Bowl.
Darnold is listed as the starting QB for the Vikings in the 2024 season and was expected to start at least one game before McCarthy took over. With McCarthy out for the full season, Darnold will now be expected to start all 17 games for the NFC North team.
The bad news for Vikings fans is Darnold has put up sub-par numbers as a starter since being drafted third overall by the New York Jets in 2018. Across stints with the Jets, Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers, Darnold has a 29-38 career record.
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Betting Odds: Darnold has a 22-33-1 record against the spread, according to Action Network's Evan Abrams. This record, which means that Darnold failed to beat the spread set by sportsbooks in 33 of the 56 games, ranks worst among quarterbacks since 2018 when the QB was drafted.
Abrams said a bettor would be out $1,206 if they bet on Darnold to cover the spread in every game he's played. Bettors will likely become increasingly aware of this stat line and could bet against the Vikings to cover in games during the 2024 season.
Another stat shared by Warren Sharp on X is that Darnold has a career completion rate of 59.7% and has never topped the 62% mark. The NFL average over the last 10 years is 63.9%. Darnold ranks 47th out of 48 quarterbacks in the metric.
Adding insult to injury, Sharp said Cousins at 67.4% ranks fourth of the 48 quarterbacks.
Darnold is listed with odds of +10,000 to win NFL MVP and odds of +1,200 to win Comeback Player of the Year. Cousins, meanwhile, has odds of +3,500 to win NFL MVP.
Darnold's odds to win Comeback Player of the Year have surged since the McCarthy injury news going from +5,000 at BetMGM, a joint venture between MGM Resorts International MGM and Entain to +2,000 as reported by BetMGM's John Ewing.
While Darnold winning MVP may have improved with a full season ahead, one bettor wasn't concerned about McCarthy potentially becoming the starter.
The bettor placed a $250 bet on Darnold to win MVP at FanDuel, which is a unit of Flutter Entertainment FLUT, at odds of +30,000. The bet will pay out $75,000 according to a tweet from Ben Fawkes last month.
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