Let’s play a little game. In December, Quarterback A has thrown five touchdowns to one interception for 413 yards with a 66% completion percentage. Quarterback B has thrown three touchdowns to one interception for 520 yards with a 63% completion percentage. Who would you take?
It’s a limited sample size, and certainly not the full picture, but on the surface, the choice is probably a toss-up for most fans. The same question asked six weeks ago would’ve yielded a painfully obvious answer, but now in mid-December, it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. So, who are our masked men?
Quarterback A is none other than J.J. McCarthy, while Quarterback B is Sam Darnold.
The two quarterbacks are both undefeated this month while playing some good ball themselves, but it wasn’t too long ago that the football world all shouted in unison, “I told you so!”
Just a month ago, social media was flooded with fans and media ripping the Vikings for choosing McCarthy over Darnold. The Seattle Seahawks were off to a sizzling 7-2 start, while the Vikings toiled near the bottom of their division at 4-5 and essentially already eliminated from the playoffs.
They deemed McCarthy a bust, Kevin O’Connell was on the chopping block, and pleas to draft or trade for another quarterback were rampant. Fans couldn’t believe that the Vikings had a franchise quarterback in the palm of their hands, and they let him walk out the door.
But now at the tail end of 2025, those same jeers and resentments have fallen silent.
Since McCarthy returned to the starting lineup in Week 9, PFF has graded him four points higher than Darnold over that time. That’s not to say he’s already surpassed Darnold as a signal-caller, but McCarthy has also won back-to-back games, and has the Vikings hopeful again that he’s the guy.
Meanwhile, Darnold has looked solid, even great at times, but also leads the NFL in turnovers with 16. He’s played well overall and has Seattle sitting pretty at 11-3, but not so well that Minnesota’s choice to let him walk turns painfully regrettable.
At this point in their careers, Darnold is still the better quarterback. There’s no denying that. I mean, the man was an MVP candidate early on this season. But would he have made enough of a difference this season for Minnesota to make his contract or a franchise tag worth it? The Seahawks gave him $100 million to be their franchise quarterback, and their returns are good, but the Vikings might have had a completely different experience.
It’s impossible to know how things would have played out. Still, the 9-4-1 Green Bay Packers are the seventh seed in the playoff picture, making it increasingly likely that the Vikings would’ve needed another 12-plus win season to guarantee a playoff spot. Whether or not Darnold could have delivered another one is anybody’s guess. Still, there’s a chance that the playoffs just weren’t in the cards for Minnesota this season, regardless of the man behind center.
McCarthy’s development in recent weeks has shown that, while he still has a ways to go, he has all the tools to hit the ground running in 2026. He’s had three straight games with over a 62% completion percentage, and just one turnover over his last two games after having 10 through his first six. It may be hard to believe, but McCarthy is 4-4 in games he’s started this season. And while his numbers haven’t always looked pretty, the Vikings are just 2-4 in the games that McCarthy hasn’t played.
The decision to move on from Darnold, regardless of the results in 2025, was probably always the best choice. Fans have already seen what the team looks like with a better-than-average, highly paid veteran quarterback. The Vikings have been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and it was time to move away from a formula that hadn’t created a playoff win since 2020. It was time to find a franchise quarterback through the draft.
It was fairly easy to write off McCarthy after a few weeks of frankly comical stat lines riddled with turnovers and incompletions. An unusual alter-ego fed the flames, and even the most die-hard Vikings fans had largely agreed the front office made a mistake. But, ultimately, it’s just taken some time for the 22-year-old to start finding his footing. He might not be at Darnold’s level right now, but his contract and compounding improvements have made McCarthy a win for the franchise.
For months, the media chided the Vikings for letting Darnold leave the building. Darnold’s play has leveled off in Seattle, while McCarthy seems to be finding his stride late in the year. Maybe it’s finally time for the world to give Quarterback A his flowers.
