If a four-time NFL MVP calls, you pick up the phone. The Minnesota Vikings had a good problem when Aaron Rodgers contacted head coach Kevin O’Connell about a possible one-year run together.
But the Vikings were already invested in J.J. McCarthy, although their confidence in the 22-year-old quarterback couldn’t overcome the echoes and threat of Rodgers.
That’s until now.
In a longform feature with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the Vikings cleared the air on the Rodgers fiasco and doubled down on their readiness to run with McCarthy as their quarterback of the future.
It’s a bet that the Vikings staff, after helping Sam Darnold piece together a 14-win season, is “emboldened” by, knowing what they have in McCarthy.
From Breer:
When the four-time MVP reached out to the Vikings, with the idea of making a one-year run at a Lombardi and tying it to being a willing mentor for McCarthy, the team felt it had to listen. The proposition, of course, was different than the other two—they’d be jamming the pause button on the idea of playing McCarthy, rather than generating competition and multiple quarterback options.
In the end, faced with all that, the Vikings found themselves emboldened to give McCarthy the runway to seize the job, the staff the opportunity to build the offense for him, and see how that looked at the end of the spring.
So the Vikings passed on Rodgers, pushing their chips in on a 22-year-old.
Vikings Entertained Veteran QB Options With High Stakes Ahead of McCarthy Decision
Getty| Daniel Jones #13 greets Sam Darnold #14 of the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings made the gutsy call to not be enticed by the potential of Rodgers in Minnesota, especially given the win-now window that the team cracked wide open after an unexpected 14-win season a year ago (oddsmakers picked the Vikings to win just 6.5 games in 2024).
However, the Vikings did explore options to add competition to the quarterback room and lighten the weight of the franchise’s expectations that McCarthy would inherit.
That included an offer to Darnold, who went with a multi-year promise with the Seattle Seahawks, and Daniel Jones, who saw a clearer opportunity for playing time with the Indianapolis Colts.
It was a long shot for Darnold to return, but Jones’ departure was a surprise after he joined the team as a backup late in the 2024 season following his release from the New York Giants.
Jones left a vacuum at the backup quarterback spot that was an opportunity for Rodgers to put out feelers for his services in one of the most quarterback-friendly environments in the league.
Now, it’s McCarthy’s show.
“I’m excited to see him get that opportunity to pick up where he left off and be accelerated, just because of the mental growth that he’s been able to have within our offense, and the verbiage and how we talk about plays,” O’Connell told Breer. “So it’s just a matter of continuing to progress, knowing we feel good about the football team we’ve put together. We’ve got the goal of surrounding the quarterback with the best possible team we can, both offensively and defensively. We feel really good about what that looks like.”
McCarthy, Darnold QB Competition Was Close, O’Connell Says
Getty| J.J. McCarthy #9 of the Minnesota Vikings participates in a drill during training camp.
Before McCarthy arrived at the Vikings’ facilities with knee soreness that proved to be a season-ending meniscus tear, the 22-year-old quarterback had made a strong case that the Vikings may have a quarterback camp battle down the final stretch of the summer.
He flashed potential in a preseason win over the Las Vegas Raiders. O’Connell outlined three throws that exemplified what they still see in McCarthy and how promising his future may be.
Had McCarthy not gotten injured, there would have been a serious camp battle.
A big reason Darnold had the inside line for much of camp was that his playing time in the NFL offered a real track record to build off when installing the offense versus projecting what kind of offense McCarthy was capable of running in his first season.
But after that preseason game against the Raiders, “the difference was just Sam’s experience,” O’Connell said.
