Kevin O’Connell addressed the media at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday, leading off by answering a question regarding the offensive line. Still, someone inevitably asked who will be the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback in 2025. O’Connell naturally offered a positive take on a situation that has left part of the fanbase fearing the unknown.
But you always sit back and say you’re very thankful to have the depth that we’ve had at the position to end the [season] with essentially the five guys sitting in the room that we had. [That includes] J.J. [McCarthy], who was a part of every meeting and heavily involved, you know, at that point in his rehab process.
You’re incredibly thankful for that. Sam [Darnold]‘s year was so fun to be a part of. Just thinking back to this time last year and then onward through the offseason, acquiring Sam, and getting him to trust in us to help him on that next step in his quarterback journey. And what a step it was, so proud of the year he had.
O’Connell clarified that he is confident in whoever the quarterback is moving forward because he felt like the coaching staff can improve a player. Sometimes, it can feel as if coaching a player up and improving their abilities can only happen during the early stages of a player’s career. However, the Vikings unlocked Darnold in his seventh season.
O’Connell’s response to the quarterback question may feel like the kind of answer any coach with a quarterback conundrum would give. However, consider Mike Zimmer’s reaction when a reporter asked about Minnesota’s plans at the 2018 Combine. Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater, and Sam Bradford were set to hit free agency after a trip to the NFC Championship. After expressing his feelings for each player, Zimmer ended the answer with a cautious declaration regarding the position.
“[Keenum, Bridgewater, and Bradford] understand how we do things there as a team and the way we go about our business,” Zimmer told reporters. “And, you know, it’s important for myself and Rick [Spielman] and the organization [to pick] the right guy that is going to help us continue to move forward. If we don’t do that, then I’ll probably get fired.”
It sounded like a warning to everyone involved in the decision-making process about what could go wrong if the Vikings went outside the organization for their next quarterback. Kirk Cousins was about to hit free agency at age 30 after spending six seasons in Washington. Franchise quarterbacks rarely hit free agency at his age, and the Vikings would have to outbid other teams for his services.
Signing Cousins in free agency would mean less cap to fill out the roster. For the defensive-minded Zimmer, that meant saying goodbye to established veterans who helped build one of the league’s best defenses in 2017.
“So that’s with Rick and myself and Rob and how it affects the salary cap and how it affects the rest of our football team,” Zimmer continued. “We’ve won 40 games in the last four years because we’ve had a good football team.
“I want to make sure…that we continue to build and improve, continually improve on defense. They told me today we’re…. 30-4 when we scored 21 points. So, it’s important that we don’t lose the defensive part of the game because we keep the game close.”
At pick 29, the Vikings appeared to be out of range for one of the top quarterbacks in the draft. Lamar Jackson fell to pick 32, but it may have been a tough sell to go into the draft desperately needing a draft-day fall to secure the position.
However, the circumstances are different for the Vikings this year because they put themselves in an advantageous position this time.
Last year, Minnesota had to decide whether to move on from Cousins, who had torn his Achilles midway through the 2023 season after playing some of the best football of his career.
But they moved on, signed Darnold, and intended to give him a chance to start. Then they drafted McCarthy a month later. Even when McCarthy suffered a season-ending meniscus injury after the team’s first preseason game, the Vikings could still trust Darnold to operate the offense at a high level.
Darnold had never played well enough to indicate he could quarterback a playoff team, but O’Connell and his staff believed they could help him become that guy in Minnesota. If McCarthy happened to take his job along the way during the preseason, then they had a good problem on their hands.
After Darnold won 14 games last year, the Vikings could bring him back at a much higher salary. But that comes with expectations that he didn’t have him entering 2024. It also means anything less than a 14-3 record or Pro Bowl could lead to questions about whether they should have committed to him long-term.
However, the likelier scenario is the Vikings hand the reins to McCarthy at a rookie-scale contract and believe that he can take to coaching as well, if not better, than Darnold did in 2024. O’Connell knows the coaching staff has done it before and is confident they can do it again. This time, they can do it with a guy locked into the team’s future beyond this season.
In 2018, the Vikings had to make a decision involving three quarterbacks. The unfortunate timing of Bridgewater’s 2016 injury and the lack of a reliable backup forced the Vikings to trade for Bradford immediately before the season.
However, Bradford himself had an injury history and only played two games in 2017. Although Keenum performed admirably in his stead, he was a career backup who entered the league as an undrafted free agent. Zimmer may have known what he had in all three quarterbacks, but that didn’t mean he was satisfied with his options. And it certainly wasn’t better than the unknown.
But the 2025 Vikings can have confidence in the unknown. They believed in Darnold, and, partly because of the success of 2024, the Vikings can confirm that their process works.
“I think [last] offseason is going to serve us well,” Adofo-Mensah said, “because I remember those conversations with my executive staff and Kevin, who I treat as another member of our staff, and talking about potential options at quarterback. And if we do this, what are the other moves we can make?
“And you go back and look at those meetings, and it’s execution after execution. So a big part of that is just the collective belief in the group that we tried something. It worked out great. A lot, obviously, it wasn’t seamless. It wasn’t perfect.”
Adofo-Mensah alluded to the flexibility last year’s quarterback decision offered the team. Conversely, Zimmer expressed concern about overpaying a quarterback and depleting the defense in 2018. The circumstances are different, but that may be intentional. As a broker on Wall Street, Adofo-Mensah focused on mitigating risk
“It’s really just being creative with our ideas and just continuing to go forward,” Adofo-Mensah continued. “But yeah, a lot of it’s just about the belief that we built.”
That belief could mean moving on from a quarterback who performed at a Pro Bowl level in Year 7. However, the belief could mean handing the reins to a younger option who becomes a multi-time Pro Bowler after seven seasons in the league.
