Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch: Minnesota Vikings QB Sam Darnold 'caught my eye'

The Detroit Lions on Sunday will face a quarterback in the middle of the best stretch of his career.

Lions safety Brian Branch has never played against Sam Darnold, but he's impressed with what he has seen from the Minnesota Vikings quarterback, who is in Year 1 with the team.

"Sam Darnold actually caught my eye," Branch said. "I didn't know he was like that but he's playing some good football."

Darnold, selected third overall in the 2018 draft by the New York Jets, is in the midst of a career-best start after Minnesota signed him to a two-year deal to be a bridge quarterback. Darnold lost his starting job in New York and settled in as a backup for the Panthers then 49ers last year before getting another starting chance in Minnesota when former Michigan quarterback and 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason.

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The Vikings are undefeated thanks to a top-ranked defense that specializes in creating turnovers along with an efficient offense that succeeds on the ground with running back Aaron Jones, whose status Sunday is still up in the air, and through the air with wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison on play-action.

"So (the downhill running) another added element that they really didn’t have early before he got there or when he was there that they’re trying to implement into their offense," defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said. "And when you have that, the play-action game shows up, and I think that’s what Sam Darnold does a really good job of, the play-action. Now you don’t have as many receivers out in the routes, but you create a lot of space between the second and the third levels of your defense to where you can hit those 20-yard comebacks, you can hit those 20-yard dig routes."

The Vikings run a West Coast-style offense popularized by the San Francisco 49ers under Kyle Shanahan and under the Los Angeles Rams under Sean McVay; Minnesota runs lots of 11 personnel sets since O'Connell comes from those roots as an offensive coordinator under McVay.

"I think the head coach, does a really good job of identifying exactly what Sam does well," Glenn said. "Similar to what you see how the Rams kind of transformed themselves into this power run team, they went and got their running back, Aaron, and he’s tough to deal with. I don’t know what his situation is, but you can tell when he’s in there, this O-line has a different mentality as far as blocking downhill."

Branch, who is coming off a three-turnover game (two interceptions and a forced fumble) against the Dallas Cowboys, agreed with his coach.

"It's almost like the Rams offense but with two better receivers," Branch said. "They are playing great football right now, I can't lie. They've got a lot of weapons over there."

Darnold comes into Week 6 with a 63.5% completion percentage while averaging 222.2 passing yards per game with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. He has been effective in protecting the ball and taking calculated risks to get his playmakers the ball downfield, with an average of 8.5 air yards per attempt, resulting in an offense that averages 27.8 points per game, good for fourth-most in the NFL. (The Lions, meanwhile, are No. 1 in scoring.)

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"We have to do a really good job with our coverage responsibility to make sure that we’re on point, our alignments are right, understanding exactly what we’re trying to do in certain situations, man or zone, to make sure that we’re not out of position, and they do a good job of that,” Glenn said.

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press covering the city's professional teams, the state's two flagship universities and more. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22 , and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch: Minnesota Vikings QB Sam Darnold 'caught my eye'