The Minnesota Vikings are never going to be able to live down the massive mistake they made at quarterback.
They have Sam Darnold right there on their roster and could have brought him back on a longer deal when he became a free agent last offseason. Minnesota decided to give J.J. McCarthy a chance to start in 2025, but that decision resulted in Darnold leading the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl and former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah getting fired.
Now, everyone on the Vikings is speaking out about their former teammate playing in the biggest game of the season and how it should have been them. The latest to do that was running back Aaron Jones, who shared his blunt thoughts on Darnold not being on the roster in 2025 during a recent appearance on the "Nightcap" podcast.
“I felt like we had everything we needed [last year], but we are not GMs, that’s outside of us. When you got a group of guys behind a QB, and he wants to stay somewhere, I think you should try to make it work.”
Aaron Jones got honest about Minnesota Vikings letting Sam Darnold walk in free agency
McCarthy's first six starts were about as brutal as any quarterback has had in their debuts, as he only completed over 60 percent of his passes in two of those starts, with six touchdown passes to 10 interceptions.
He ended up bouncing back nicely, winning his final four starts of the season and throwing five touchdowns to two interceptions.
It doesn't compare fairly, though, to what Darnold did in Seattle as he led the Seahawks to a 14-3 record, throwing for 4,048 yards and 25 touchdowns to 14 interceptions while completing 67.7 percent of his passes.
While his touchdown-to-interception ratio is not great in the regular season, the postseason run for Darnold was stellar, completing 69.8 percent of his passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns to zero interceptions in two games.
For Vikings fans, it's hard not to think about what could have been if the team decided to pay Darnold over picking McCarthy to be the starting quarterback, seeing the success Seattle is having with them. Unfortunately, this is a mistake Minnesota will have to live with for a long time.
Now the Vikings have to right a past wrong and find a capable veteran quarterback to come in, push the young McCarthy to be better, and get Minnesota back in the playoff conversation.