The Minnesota Vikings just finished their best season in over 15 years, completely unexpectedly albeit. Following last year’s disappointment of a season, there were some questions brought up about the future of the team. Kirk Cousins, the franchise’s starting quarterback since 2018, tore his Achilles during a Week 8 game against the Packers and was placed on Injury reserve for the rest of the year. Veteran backup Joshua Dobbs was acquired from the Cardinals to replace him, and had a few good performances, however was ultimately benched in favor of Jaren Hall and Nick Mullens. Cousins, Dobbs, and Hall would all leave for new teams in the offseason, leading the Vikings to select National Championship-winning quarterback J.J. McCarthy from Michigan with the 10th pick in the NFL Draft, with the plans of starting him full-time during his rookie season being the team’s M.O. The team signed veteran Sam Darnold to back him up and mentor him. These plans were changed when McCarthy tore his meniscus. This put the Vikings’ season in danger of failing, with many fearing Darnold’s past inconsistency would tank the team, and potentially lead All-Pro Wide Receiver Justin Jefferson into requesting out. Darnold and the Vikings obliterated expectations by a long measure. Not only did they have a winning record, they finished with the 3rd best record in the league. That regular-season success did not result in any playoff success, as the team was bounced in an unimpressive wild card match against the Los Angeles Rams, where Sam Darnold was sacked 9 times, 6 in the first half alone. With Darnold’s contract being up, McCarthy recovering, as well as bringing in former Giants QB Daniel Jones before the playoffs the Minnesota Vikings need to have a plan for their QB Situation next fall.
While the Vikings have the option to potentially re-sign Darnold, an already established veteran quarterback who has proven to work in their system, they also have to keep in mind the future of their franchise with McCarthy. Sam Darnold is in a limbo category of quarterbacks. He’s good enough to complement a good offense that isn’t purely built around him at QB, however, he’s also proven to not handle situations well where he has to be the best player on offense. Darnold was drafted third overall by the New York Jets in 2018, struggled hard with inconsistency, and generally performed poorly. This continued when he was traded to the Carolina Panthers to be an occasional starter, in the midst of their rebuild. Darnold recorded back-to-back seasons with a higher interception count than touchdown count in 2020 and 2021. Darnold’s poor performance changed when he signed with the eventual NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers in 2023 as a backup to Brock Purdy. While he only started in one game, Darnold performed well. Sam Darnold should not be the savior or solution for current poverty offenses like the Giants, Titans, or Browns; he already proved that part about himself in Carolina and New York. However, his stints in San Francisco and Minnesota do show that he can be a successful system quarterback only if he is given the right weapons, or in a top-10 offense. With that being said, I do not believe the Minnesota Vikings should keep Sam Darnold. It would be the save, and overall better option for the Vikings to let Darnold walk in free agency, start J.J. McCarthy, and have Daniel Jones on the bench as a backup. Jones is another ex-New York team QB who, while showing promise, struggled with consistency, and didn’t have many receiving weapons. Albeit, he was a much better quarterback in his first few seasons than Darnold. J.J. McCarthy, who essentially had his rookie season stolen from him due to injury and deserves a shot. From his time in college, I can tell McCarthy has potential. Maybe not Mahomes-level, but has potential and deserves his shot to be a starting-level quarterback in the NFL, and the Vikings wouldn’t be doing themselves justice by drafting a National Championship-winning quarterback in the top ten, and then wasting his potential or growth by benching him for a Veteran who, was already a risky signing, and can only work in certain schemes.
This whole situation is similar to the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles, where an inconsistent veteran in Nick Foles was signed to back up the elite young Carson Wentz, however, when Wentz went down with a season-ending injury, Foles took the already winning team to a Super Bowl, and end up winning as an unlikely underdog; however, this created several internal problems the next year in the process when Wentz returned. While it’s smart and common sense to have a good, and in Minnesota’s situation, an unlikely great backup for your young talent, you have to go back to what you committed to when you drafted a quarterback in the first round to be the next leader of your franchise. In a perfect world, Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy both deserve to be the starting quarterback for an NFL team, what team or how successful that team will be is up for debate, however, they have both proven themselves as starting-caliber quarterbacks.
At the end of the day, Darnold and McCarthy both know what’s best for them, and their team should also. I believe the right decision for the Minnesota Vikings is to let Darnold walk for another team in need of a quarterback (potentially the Raiders, Steelers, or even a reunion with the Jets), and keep McCarthy for the long term. I can’t say if McCarthy will lead the Vikings to a 14-3 record in his first year starting like Darnold did this year, however, if we look down the road, it would be the best situation for all parties involved.
