The Minnesota Vikings appear to be moving forward with one of the more diminutive quarterback rooms in recent NFL history for their 2026 campaign. Not only is J.J. McCarthy going to get his career back on track, but the team has been linked heavily to former No. 1 overall pick Kyler Murray.
This quarterback room, even if Murray pans out, is a far cry from 2024, when the Vikings at one point had Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold in the middle of his breakout season as the starter and recently released New York Giants top pick Daniel Jones as the backup. Minnesota let Jones walk in the offseason, as he landed with the Indianapolis Colts.
Jones has given the Colts the quarterback stability that Minnesota would do anything to acquire, and Indy rewarded him with a two-year contract that can pay him up to $100 million despite the fact that he tore his Achilles last season.
The Vikings had not one, but two chances to sign a former top pick to a long-term contract instead of going full steam ahead with McCarthy, and it appears as though both Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah rolled snake eyes both times.
Former Vikings QB Daniel Jones signs two-year contract with Colts
Jones threw for 19 touchdowns against just eight interceptions in 10 starts with Indianapolis before his Achilles injury. Prior to that injury, the Colts were viewed as one of the best teams in the AFC, and Shane Steichen is betting on Jones retaining that form when he gets back to full health.
While hindsight is always 20-20, keeping Jones as a backup that could have stepped in if McCarthy faltered would have been a better option than rolling with Carson Wentz. When his shoulder was eviscerated, and Max Brosmer was forced into action, Minnesota's season effectively came to an end.
Moving off Darnold for McCarthy was controversial, but it made sense at the time due to the investment this franchise made in their Top 10 pick. Choosing not to sign Jones, which led to them bargain-bin shopping for backups, helped ruin their 2025 season while simultaneously changing Indy's short-term future.
If the combination of McCarthy and Murray doesn't work out in the way Minnesota intended, the defining blunder of the O'Connell era may be the twin decisions to let two NFL starters in Darnold and Jones both find work elsewhere and go down with Nine's ship.