The Minnesota Vikings face a quarterback conundrum, with Sam Darnold a free agency after a Pro Bowl season and rookie first-round pick J.J. McCarthy recovering from a torn meniscus he suffered in the preseason opener.
Daniel Jones is also a factor in the room. However, his fate with the Vikings may depend on what Darnold does after the season even more than McCarthy’s.
It is a good problem for the Vikings to have.
“Sam Darnold’s 2024 was a revelation, setting up the Vikings to put #10 overall pick J.J. McCarthy in a holding pattern until further notice,” Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti wrote on January 3. “Prediction: The Vikings … trade J.J. McCarthy to the Las Vegas Raiders days before the NFL Draft.”
The Vikings could land a haul for McCarthy if they traded him.
They sent the No. 11 overall pick along with fourth and fifth-rounders to the New York Jets to move up to No. 10 in the 2024 draft to select the former Michigan star, McCarthy. The Vikings, who also received a sixth-round pick in the deal, could recoup that and more in a potential trade.
Vikings Navigating QB Quandary
“Minnesota will be a must-follow franchise for the next few months as they navigate one of the best problems in all of sports: too many quarterbacks at their disposal,” Ginnitti wrote.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter said he expects teams to call the Vikings about a trade for McCarthy and that he would be highly sought-after due to several factors. Most notably, the incoming crop of rookie QBs is not as highly touted as McCarthy’s. The other big reason is supply and demand.
“In a limited quarterback draft class, where there are far more teams that need quarterbacks than quarterbacks who actually can step in right away. I definitely think teams will be checking in with the Vikings to see if they have any interest in trading J.J. McCarthy. Now, they may say, ‘We don’t,’ and that’s the end of it,” Schefter said on “Unsportsmanlike” on January 1.
“Do I think teams will explore that option …? Of course, absolutely, a 100%. Because J.J. McCarthy would have been a top if not the top quarterback prospect in this draft. And, yes, he’s he’s coming off the [meniscus]. So what? Doesn’t really matter. And if the Vikings decided that they wanted to trade them – which, I don’t know if they will – I believe they would get back everything they put into him and then some. It will be a 1 and then some.”
Fox Sports 1’s Colin Cowherd also suggested the Vikings consider a McCarthy trade.
Cowherd noted Jones’ presence and the Vikings’ lack of draft capital as two reasons he believes the Vikings are already considering a trade.
“In my take, they’ll rehab Daniel Jones like they rehabbed Sam Darnold. And I think J.J. McCarthy is good enough in a weak quarterback draft class to fetch you multiple picks,” Cowherd said on “The Herd” on January 2.
“I got nothing against J.J. McCarthy. But you can’t let Sam Darnold walk out of the room. And Daniel Jones as a backup – a big, strong, athletic backup – would be arguably the best backup quarterback in the league. And he’s already shown – remember, McCarthy’s already had 2 surgeries. He’s never played an NFL [regular season] game. Darnold’s an MVP-level player, and Daniel Jones won a playoff game against those Vikings. So my take is J.J. McCarthy, I think deep down they are strongly considering moving him. That is my take. I don’t think it’s a wild take.”
Cowherd believes navigating the “stacked” teams in the NFC North will be difficult without rookies on cost-controlled contracts.
McCarthy would qualify, heading into Year 2 of a four-year, $21.8 million rookie deal.
Over The Cap projects the franchise tag for quarterbacks to be $41.3 million.
That is more than half the Vikings’ projected $76.4 million cap space for 2025. Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti projected a $49 million annual salary for Darnold in an article predicting the QB’s return to Minnesota published on January 3.
If the Vikings want Darnold back in purple in 2025, they will have to pay a hefty sum to keep him.
Kevin O’Connell’s Belief in J.J. McCarthy Speaks Volumes About Vikings’ QB Situation
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell went through an arduous process of evaluating all of the quarterbacks during the pre-draft process. He has also all but said McCarthy was the Vikings’ QB of the future, potentially putting an end to trade talks before they ever begin.
This was after McCarthy had torn his meniscus in the Vikings’ preseason opener.
“The transformation of a really, really good player had really started to really look like an NFL quarterback. And just the work he puts in and the commitment to every aspect of the organic way he’s learning how to play quarterback in the National Football League,” O’Connell told reporters in August after announcing McCarthy would be out for the season.
“J.J. has kind of confirmed to me and a lot of our coaches and players that we got the right guy in the building for the future, and he did it in a short amount of time.”
McCarthy is expected to be fully recovered by the spring. That would put him on track for a full training camp and preseason. If that remains the case, there is no reason to believe O’Connell and the Vikings will have changed their stance by then.
