Kyle Rudolph left the Minnesota Vikings a couple seasons before they went 14-3 in 2022, when they lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Giants.
Two seasons later, they had almost a carbon copy of that campaign. This year, they went 13-4 but had another first-round playoff exit.
"You got to make the plays when it matters most, and they just didn't do it each of those last playoff games," Rudolph told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
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Now, the Vikings have to decide whether to keep Sam Darnold or hand the keys to the offense to J.J. McCarthy.
Minnesota drafted McCarthy with the 10th selection of last year's NFL Draft, and he was in the running to start until a knee injury in the preseason ended his season. That gave the nod to Darnold, who took advantage of the opportunity and had, by far, the best season of his career.
Darnold was playing himself into a lucrative contract until his final two games. Now, who knows what he'll get on the open market?
At the very least, he may get a decent deal like Baker Mayfield's. But even that might be a lot for Minnesota, Rudolph said.
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"Well, I think it really, so much in football comes down to the money piece. You know, when you have a salary cap, and you're trying to build a roster, unfortunately, you have to make decisions that are solely based on the ramifications of the salary cap and what that does for your roster," Rudolph said.
"So, when you look at Sam Darnold and the year that he had in Minnesota, there's just so many factors that go into it ultimately for Sam. Does he want to go to the highest bidder? Do I think Minnesota can be the highest bidder? No, I do not. You have so much other talent on that roster that they would like to keep and have to pay. If that's what Sam decides, and he wants to go to the highest bidder, I don't think Minnesota has a chance.
"If Sam says, ‘I love playing for Kevin O'Connell. This is the best year of my career. He brings the best out of me, I love being on this team,’ I think he would have to take some sort of a discount. And then the third piece that comes in is, ultimately, you always have the franchise tag.
"So, if they were decide to franchise tag Sam, they could keep him on that one-year franchise tag deal. But, again, that makes things really, really tough on the salary cap because that's a one-year full salary cap hit. So, it'll be interesting what they decide.
"To this point, Kevin [O'Connell] has proved that it really doesn't matter who the quarterback is. Jaren Hall, Josh Dobbs, Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold — he's going to get the most out of him, and they're going to go win football games."
The Vikings will be home watching the Philadelphia Eagles try to dethrone the Kansas City Chiefs, who are in their fifth Super Bowl in the last six years with a chance to three-peat.
It's widely been argued Kansas City has the refs on their side. But Rudolph disputed the idea of any conspiracy or favoritism.
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"If you go and look at the statistics and dive into kind of like where are the Chiefs compared to every other team in the NFL in terms of calls for and calls against, they're kind of right there in the middle of the pack," Rudolph said.
"But what is different about the Chiefs, they're on national TV almost every week. They're playing in primetime a whole lot. They're always making deep playoff runs, five out of six years in the Super Bowl. Obviously, you have all the off-the-field publicity with Travis [Kelce] and Taylor [Swift] and Patrick’s stardom. It’s just, you see it a lot more.
"They look for things that trigger, ‘Oh, that's a foul. That's a penalty.’ It’s the slightest jersey grab, but that’s something that triggers their psyche to say, 'Oh, I saw that jersey grab, I'm throwing the flag.’ It's just an immediate reaction to them. So, no, I don't think there's favoritism. Obviously, in the world that we're in today, if that were ever to be the case … we have all the resources in the world to find out … right? We would know."
Rudolph spoke to Fox News Digital on behalf of his own charity, Alltroo, where fans can donate to the campaign, and in turn, those dollars go directly to players' charities. But Rudolph and his partners have added a couple of twists.
This year, with just a $10 donation to Alltroo, fans can win both a trip to the Super Bowl with Drew Brees in New Orleans and an opportunity to announce a draft pick in Green Bay later this year if they donate to a Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee's charity.
Considering that 94% of people who donate to Alltroo had never donated to a nonprofit before, Rudolph says it's a "win-win" for everyone.
"What we wanted to create was an opportunity for die-hard sports fans, not just the high-net worth individuals or the big corporate brands, to have an opportunity to support us. And then the flip side is people are winning once-in-a lifetime experiences and items that may be out of reach.
"So, trying to create that win-win scenario where we're raising additional funds for charity that wouldn't otherwise be, and then, ultimately, offering these once-in-a lifetime experiences to fans that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it," Rudolph said, noting that Super Bowl prices are "insanely out of price for a lot of people."
"Whatever you're willing to donate to these players’ causes, 100% of the proceeds will go directly to these player causes. So, we can just be the vehicle that passes through these donations and then, at the end of the day, a lucky fan's gonna have the opportunity to go up there and announce a draft pick at the draft and realize someone else's dream.
"So, all in all, super cool for me to have the opportunity as a former nominee to really spearhead this initiative on behalf of the league. For as little as a $10 donation, you have a chance to win."
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