EAGAN, Minn. — Sam Darnold has been named the NFL's Most Improved Player for the 2024 season.

The Pro Football Writers of America made the announcement Friday, marking the third straight year a quarterback has received the distinction. The honor went to Tampa Bay's Baker Mayfield following the 2023 campaign and Seattle's Geno Smith following 2022.

Darnold earned Most Improved Player after establishing new career highs across the stat sheet and earning his first career Pro Bowl nod.

The 27-year-old helped lead Minnesota to a 14-3 regular season, during which he was 361-of-545 passing for 4,319 yards, with 35 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions. He posted a passer rating of 102.5, 10 points higher than his previous high set in 2022.

After impressing throughout training camp, Darnold got off to a fast start.

He threw for two touchdowns against the Giants in Week 1 and again in Week 2 against the Niners, including a 97-yard strike to Justin Jefferson that marked the longest passing touchdown league-wide since Oct. 9, 2022.

Darnold recorded four passing touchdowns in Week 3 and three in Week 4, earning NFC Offensive Player of the Month honors for his first September as a Viking.

Darnold became the first QB in Vikings history to post a passer rating of 100-plus in each of the team's first four games to start a season, tying the longest streak among all quarterbacks league-wide since 1970.

With a career-high and franchise-record 157.9 passer rating against Atlanta in Week 14, he set the Vikings record for most games with a 100-plus passer rating (11) and was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Against the Seahawks in Week 16, Darnold set the NFL record for most games with a 100-plus passer rating in his first season with a team, logging his 12^th such outing.

He helped the Vikings net their 14^th victory of the season against Green Bay in Week 17, becoming the first QB in NFL history to record 14 wins in his first season with a team since at least 1950 when QB starts were tracked. (Peyton Manning and Steve McNair previously had 13 apiece.)

Darnold threw for career highs in completions (33) and passing yards (377) against the Packers, adding three passing scores for the second straight week and bringing his total for November and December to 21.

Overall, Darnold was part of tying or breaking 35 records by a Vikings quarterback, either a against a particular opponent or within a game, month or season.

He became the fifth 4,000-yard passer in Vikings history, joining Kirk Cousins (four times), Brett Favre, Daunte Culpepper and Warren Moon (twice).

Darnold is the 13^th quarterback to be named the PFWA's Most Improved Player since the recognition started in 2000. He is the first player to receive the honor as a Viking.

Initially the third overall draft pick in 2018, the former USC standout had a tumultuous start to his pro career. Darnold had 66 games (56 starts) under his belt before joining Minnesota last spring. He was 1,082-of-1,811 (59.7 completion percentage) for 12,064 yards, 63 touchdowns and 56 interceptions with a 78.3 passer rating over those games.