Before anyone had a chance to blink, former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks had quickly jumped out to a 35-0 lead in their Week 10 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Darnold and the Seahawks eventually left the field with a 44-22 win, and while the veteran quarterback didn't put together a monster performance (he didn't have to), it was still just the latest example for Vikings fans to use against the team's decision to move on from him this past offseason.
A year after leading Minnesota to a 14-3 record, Darnold has Seattle in a similar position this season, as they now have a 7-2 record and are in a prime position to enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Sam Darnold's success with the Seattle Seahawks is something that could get Minnesota Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah fired
The Vikings clearly didn't envision Darnold going on to lead the Seahawks to as much success as he already has this season, or they wouldn't have let him out the door.
But maybe they should have?
Following Seattle's win over the Cardinals on Sunday, Darnold is now 25-8 in his last 33 regular-season starts, dating all the way back to the 2022 season when he was a member of the Carolina Panthers.
To further emphasize how impressive that is, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, last season's NFL MVP, has a 24-9 record in his last 33 regular-season starts.
To be completely fair to Minnesota, they wanted to take a different path at quarterback after spending six seasons treading water while Kirk Cousins added to his bank account. So, in 2024, they moved on from Cousins, and Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah used a first-round pick to draft Michigan's J.J. McCarthy.
McCarthy just finished his fourth career start in a Minnesota uniform, and he still has a long way to go in his development. But a lot of Vikings fans would be lying if they were to say it's easy to be patient with McCarthy's development while Darnold is leading Seattle to the top of the conference at the same exact time.
Adofo-Mensah's future with the Vikings is riding on how this decision turns out. If McCarthy is unable to turn the corner next season and Darnold still has the Seahawks among the top teams in the NFC, then no one would really be surprised if Minnesota wound up with a general manager opening in the 2027 offseason.