Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell announced that rookie first-round pick J.J. McCarthy has returned to on-field work. That puts him on track to have a full offseason in preparation for the 2025 season.
O’Connell avoided getting into specifics. He also offered revealing comments about McCarthy and 2025 starting QB Sam Darnold.
Darnold is hitting free agency coming off his two worst games of the 2024 season.
However, he put forth a Pro Bowl campaign while McCarthy missed the entire slate with a torn meniscus suffered in the preseason opener. Despite touting McCarthy as the “right player” for the “future,” O’Connell clarified when asked that he was speaking about the player, not the QB.
“When I said that in training camp about J.J., I think it was to make sure that everybody knew my perspective on what we had added via a first-round draft pick to our organization, which was a guy [who] we all believe in his future,” O’Connell told reporters during his season-ending press conference on January 16.
“At the same time, throughout that whole time, I do remember saying that Sam was having a great training camp and doing a lot of the things that we hoped he would do on his kind of individualized approach to being at his best and playing the best football of his career.”
“How we build forward and how we put things together as we move into the future will be based upon what gives us the best chance to win, what gives us the best chance to put the best version of the Minnesota Vikings football team on the field,” O’Connell said. “It’s way too early to – in that process – to really identify exactly what that looks like.
“We’re going to go through every layer of it and … we’re going to clearly decide that path that best helps us move forward to win games.”
Darnold completed 66.2% of his passes for 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions during the regular season. He also ranked fourth in sacks and yards lost on those sacks, which O’Connell later lamented.
Sam Darnold’s Poor Finish to Season Could Be Good News for Kevin O’Connell, Vikings
Darnold had the sixth-best big-time throw rate among QBs with at least 400 dropbacks in 2024, per Pro Football Focus.
He had the second-worst turnover-worthy play rate among that same group.
Only former Vikings starting quarterback Kirk Cousins, now of the Atlanta Falcons, had a higher rate. The Falcons benched Cousins for rookie first-round pick Michael Penix – who was selected two picks ahead of McCarthy in the 2024 draft – after 14 games.
Darnold avoided suffering a similar fate as his predecessor. That was even as the Vikings made roster moves before losing to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Wild Card.
However, his poor play in the final two games of the year could benefit the Vikings financially.
Some early projections had Darnold receiving as much as $196 million on his next contract. The Vikings could even use the franchise tag, which is worth $41.3 million for 2025, per Over The Cap.
But Bleacher Report’s James Palmer estimated in a live stream on January 15 that Darnold will land a multi-year deal. But it will be in the range of $30 million with the season over.
If that is the final number, the Vikings could bring him back and continue this year’s plan.
Front-loading the deal could leave the Vikings room to get out from under it if Darnold again struggles. McCarthy could also progress to the point that O’Connell and the Vikings coaching staff are ready to dub him the starter.
Sam Darnold, J.J. McCarthy Could Have Another Training Camp Battle for Vikings’ QB1 Job
O’Connell went a long way without committing to any specific path. He did reiterate his affinity for the talent the Vikings’ QB room boasted this season.
“We had a very strong quarterback room this year. At one point in time, I remember walking in there and seeing five quarterbacks sitting in that room, all with the ability, in my opinion, to win games. With the ability to play the position at a pretty darn high level. All at different times and points of their journey as quarterbacks in this league,” O’Connell said.
“I think it’s just a – it’s a remarkable thing to have all those guys in the room.”
That could set the stage where two of the top three QBs – including Daniel Jones, a pending free agent like Darnold – return next season and battle for the starting job in training camp. Darnold and McCarthy would seem like the obvious choices.
Darnold is the most known commodity in a room that will see changes. McCarthy has not yet had the opportunity to showcase himself, but the early returns were promising.
“We all believe he had already done some things to confirm a lot of the special aspects of what J.J. McCarthy had been as a player, at a very successful level, at the collegiate level,” O’Connell said. “But then also, in a very short amount of time, what we what we had deemed to be [that] he was absolutely on the right track.”
Jones’ greatest contribution could be the compensatory pick the Vikings receive if he leaves.
