Despite Sam Darnold putting together a career-best performance in 2024, the Minnesota Vikings decided to move on from the 28-year-old quarterback this past offseason in favor of beginning their journey with J.J. McCarthy.
Well, we're 10 weeks into the 2025 season, and an argument can be made that the Vikings made a mistake by not bringing back Darnold, as he has been playing at an MVP level in his first year with the Seattle Seahawks, and McCarthy has only appeared in three of Minnesota's eight games.
However, Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab recently brought up a great point that Darnold's success has made it even harder for anyone to properly evaluate McCarthy this season.
"I think one of the big things working against J.J. McCarthy is we're still to a point where we're underrating how good Sam Darnold is.
We just expected, I did this in the offseason too, I was high on the Vikings, said they're gonna make it back to the playoffs, they're a playoff team, we just said, 'Well, Sam Darnold had a good season, but it's because of the supporting cast and J.J. McCarthy can step in and do that too.'
I think Sam Darnold [is] showing this year with the Seahawks, like, no, he's actually driving the bus. Like, he's a really good quarterback.
Look, I didn't expect it to happen, but it did, and now, J.J. McCarthy is being compared to that.
Instead of saying, 'Yeah, Sam Darnold's really, really good, we just say, 'Well, why isn't J.J. McCarthy doing that?'
...Part of what's gonna hold [McCarthy] back for a while is everybody's just in this mindset of, 'Well, Sam Darnold was just riding in the back of the bus in this great system he had and J.J. and and O'Connell and all this,' where as Sam Darnold is a really, really good quarterback who's proving that, and J.J. McCarthy is, honestly, going to have a tough time reaching that level [this season].
But now at least that we've seen J.J. McCarthy break through a little bit and have a positive game. Alright, you can build on that. Be better next week. Be better the week after that."
Sam Darnold's success with Seattle Seahawks getting in way of proper evaluation of Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy
Schwab's theory makes a ton of sense.
Instead of McCarthy being evaluated solely on his performance on the field each week, the evaluation is seasoned with a comparison to how Darnold is played that week as well.
Take what happened in Week 9 for example.
McCarthy went out and threw for 143 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception to go along with another score with his legs in the Vikings' big win over the Detroit Lions. But then a few hours later, Darnold dismantled the Washington Commanders by completing 87.5 percent of his passes for 330 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception.
Instead of people highlighting the positives that Minnesota's young quarterback can build on from his performance in Detroit, his stat-line is immediately compared to Darnold's.
This isn't some sort of excuse for McCarthy, but the way that he's being viewed by NFL analysts and the general public would likely be a lot more positive if Darnold wasn't doing his best impression of prime Peyton Manning this season.