The Minnesota Vikings have entered the 2025 offseason with many questions and few answers.
One of these questions is, who will be the next bridge quarterback if J.J. McCarthy can’t start Week 1?
Should the Vikings re-sign Sam Darnold, who had an amazing run until the last two weeks of the season? Or Daniel Jones, who they picked up about a week after the New York Giants granted him a release from the team? Instead, maybe Minnesota tests the free-agent market to find that quarterback placeholder.
Last offseason, the Vikings signed Darnold on a one-year, $10 million contract and traded up to pick No. 10 to take McCarthy. Minnesota didn’t plan on having Darnold start all season. However, those plans changed the day McCarthy went down with a knee injury, effectively ending his rookie year after his first preseason start.
The Vikings had five quarterbacks on the roster last year, but McCarthy is the only QB they have under contract, highlighting their need at the position. Why not take the risk on someone who already knows the system? If anything, Jones would be repaying a favor after he beat Ed Donatell’s shell defense in the playoffs and signed a four-year, $160 million extension.
Although Jones was a first-round bust with the New York Giants, he has a history against the Vikings. One of the more important games of his career was a 2022 playoff win over Minnesota, which is likely one of the reasons why the Giants offered him that lucrative contract.
Jones would be another reclamation project for O’Connell, who spent much of last season on Minnesota’s practice squad. Taking Jones on a similar one-year, $10 million deal also saves cap space. Spotrac projects Darnold to sign a four-year, $160 million contract, the same deal the Giants offered Jones, and it would cost them $41 million to franchise-tag him. The Vikings could use the extra cap space to address other needs like the offensive line or defensive backs.
Darnold showed that he still has the arm strength and pocket presence that made him so coveted, ultimately leading the New York Jets to draft him third overall in the 2018 draft.
In the final two games, Darnold looked like he was seeing ghosts again, sailing the ball over his receivers’ heads and missing on what looked like easy routes. “To not be able to complete a screen pass,” Troy Aikman mused during the Wild Card game. “Even the easy throws are getting difficult.”
The Vikings activated Jones for the Wild Card game against the Los Angeles Rams, prompting questions about whether head coach Kevin O’Connell had specific schemes or play designs for Jones. KOC never gave a straight answer to these questions.
“We are going to do what gives us the best chance to win,” he said.
Signing Jones to a team-friendly deal and letting Darnold go would allow McCarthy to further develop before taking an NFL snap. This approach seems similar to the “Jordan Love approach” in Green Bay but is theoretically less protracted and potentially contentious.
However, instead of learning behind a future Hall of Famer, he would spend the first two years learning under quarterbacks trying to revitalize their careers. McCarthy would also learn how the business of the NFL works and the amount of work and drive it takes to be a perennial starter in this league. Like many successful people, McCarthy would learn from the mistakes of those before him.
If the Vikings sign Daniel Jones, he will enter a similar situation to the one Darnold walked into last year. Daniels is a top-10 draft pick, and he is looking to show that he still belongs as a starter in this league. Meanwhile, a young, talented backup in McCarthy waits for his NFL opportunity.
The fans will have the same mindset as the quarterback going into this season. If Jones wins the job to start the season, when will we see McCarthy play?
KOC will also need a similar mindset if he chooses Jones over Darnold. He must use Jones’ strengths to help this team win games.
It’s time to embrace Jones and see what his unknowns could bring to this franchise. We must find out if Greg Olsen’s Week 14 assessment of KOC being a QB whisperer is correct to keep this team in a playoff window for years to come.
