The Minnesota Vikings’ search for a franchise quarterback hit another low last week when J.J. McCarthy officially lost the starting quarterback job to Kyler Murray.
While the team preached that it was a competition between the two quarterbacks for the starting job, many could have argued he lost it last year when he was a colossal bust for the Vikings after earning the role.
The latest development has trolls and social media managers reminding Vikings fans that they let Sam Darnold go to start McCarthy last season.
But even though he won 14 games with the Vikings in 2024 and wound up winning a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, he still wouldn’t have jumpstarted a dynasty because their supporting cast wouldn't have let it happen.
Minnesota Vikings QB drama was only part of their post-Sam Darnold collapse
The narrative is that the Vikings were a quarterback away from having a much better season last year. McCarthy bombed as a starter, winning six of his 10 starts, but he left two due to injury and completed just 57.6 percent of his passes for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
In addition to McCarthy’s struggles, the Vikings' backup situation was not ideal. Sam Howell was the initial backup but was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles ahead of the 2025 season.
Carson Wentz was signed shortly after and went 2-3 in his five starts but completed 65.1 percent of his passes for 1,216 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.
Then there was Max Brosmer. The Minnesota legend who helped the Golden Gophers earn eight wins and a mayo bath for P.J. Fleck in 2024 gained hype with his preseason performance. But he looked like a UDFA when he hit the field, completing 66.2 percent of his passes for 328 yards and four interceptions.
With the Vikings quarterback room in shambles, it would have been pretty nice to have kept Darnold.
While he didn’t put up the borderline MVP numbers (66.2 percent completion rate, 4,319 yards, 35 TDs, 12 INTs) he did in his lone season in Minnesota, he was the steady baseline of quarterback play that Kevin O’Connell has been seeking this offseason, completing 67.7 percent of his passes for 4,048 yards, 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
In addition, Darnold led Seattle to a 14-win season and home-field advantage during the playoffs, which allowed the Seahawks to defeat an overmatched Patriots team for the championship.
Because of this, Vikings fans look back at their schedule and see several games that Darnold could have turned into wins. But lost in everything is the infrastructure that helped Darnold capture the Lombardi Trophy.
Sam Darnold showed the Minnesota Vikings need more than a QB last season
Darnold played well for the Seahawks, but his supporting cast brought everything up a notch.
Vikings fans would argue that Justin Jefferson is just as good, if not better, than Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Minnesota’s defense was also on the same level, ranking third in yards per play (4.7) and seventh in points allowed (333) compared to Seattle’s ranks of second (4.6) and first (292).
But there were two things they didn’t have. First, it was a slew of young talent that helped the Seahawks work between the margins in free agency.
While Darnold was the headliner, Cooper Kupp and DeMarcus Lawrence played key roles, and Seattle signed Ernest Jones IV to a multi-year extension that complemented a core that included Smith-Njigba, Devon Witherspoon and Kenneth Walker III.
Speaking of Walker, the Seahawks had an excellent running game. Walker got the headlines and was named Super Bowl MVP, but Zach Charbonnet also shouldered the load, with the duo combining for 1,757 yards.
Running efficiently was part of the equation, but the difference was the Seahawks actually used that part of their offense, ranking third in the NFL with 507 carries while the Vikings finished 27th with 410 attempts.
The Vikings’ number is also skewed as O’Connell leaned on the running game when the season was virtually over, but he did so with the energy of a kid who had been threatened to be grounded if he didn’t clean his room.
This was just part of the problem. The Vikings’ offensive line was in shambles throughout last season as Christian Darrisaw’s knee and Will Fries’s leg never felt right.
Donovan Jackson suffered a wrist injury, and Ryan Kelly was hit with multiple concussions, further weakening the interior of the offensive line that caused Darnold to short-circuit in the final two games of the 2024 campaign.
McCarthy’s “Nine” persona and inaccuracies also let the Vikings down, but they were also without Jordan Addison for the first three games after he was suspended by the league for a 2024 DWI arrest that was later reduced to a lesser charge.
Minnesota’s defense also couldn’t get off the field, finishing 16th with a 11.0 percent turnover rate and veterans like Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave who did not care about stopping the run, although the Vikings ranked seventh, allowing 4.0 yards per attempt.
With that, Darnold descending from the heavens and leading the Vikings to the Super Bowl seems misguided. And it could be a similar story for the Vikings as they head into battle with Kyler Murray this year.
Sam Darnold’s success is a warning to the 2026 Minnesota Vikings
A lot of the underlying issues the Vikings had a year ago seem to be past them. But that also could be the eternal optimism of training camp.
Sure, Darrisaw and Fries are another year removed from their significant injuries. But football is a violent game that can change that quickly.
The Vikings have also hyped up their running game, but that could also go out the window when O’Connell calls his first 20-yard dagger route or double pass to Murray on a 3rd-and-1.
It doesn’t stop analysts from reminding everyone that this is way better than the supporting cast that Murray had with the Arizona Cardinals.
But that should be the case considering the Cardinals enter this season tied with the Miami Dolphins for the lowest win projected total at 3.5 per DraftKings Sportsbook.
Even then, the Vikings defense is hoping that the 2026 draft class is closer than the 2015 one than anything former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah cooked up in the past four years, and they play in the only division that may be tougher than the one Darnold is facing in the NFC West, which gives him two chances to pound the Cardinals.
That won’t stop anyone with an X account from bringing up that the Vikings let Darnold go. And his presence could have gotten O’Connell that elusive playoff win the rest of the division has captured since he was hired in 2022.
But even the Vikings know that Darnold benefited from the infrastructure in Seattle because they hired Nolan Teasley, who played a key role in building it under John Schneider with the Seahawks.
Maybe last year was a blip on the radar, and it doesn’t change that McCarthy was a massive failure. But it does poke holes in the idea that the Vikings would be sitting on a dynasty had they kept Darnold instead.
Add us as a preferred source on Google