The Minnesota Vikings entered the 2025 offseason with a massive decision at the most important position in sports.
Stick with Pro Bowl starting quarterback Sam Darnold, who helped lead the Vikings to 14 wins during the 2024 regular season?
Or roll with No. 10 overall draft pick J.J. McCarthy, who was working to get his mind and body recovered from a pair of 2024 surgeries to repair and clean up a torn meniscus in his right knee.
The Vikings, of course, chose the latter, with Darnold officially leaving Minnesota in free agency to sign a three-year, $100 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks.
While Darnold’s stay in Seattle could be shorter than expected — his contract includes team options in both 2026 and 2027, and Seattle drafted Alabama star Jalen Milroe in the third round of April’s draft — the term and guaranteed money ($55 million) in Darnold’s deal was a no-brainer based on his reported discussions with the Vikings.
In a recent report for Sports Illustrated, insider Albert Breer revealed that the idea of bringing back either Darnold or Daniel Jones this offseason “was only a one-year thing” on Minnesota’s side of the negotiating table. Per Breer, keeping McCarthy firmly in the mix for 2025 was the team’s top priority, which is why potential deals with Darnold, Jones or even Aaron Rodgers ultimately fell through the cracks.
“With Darnold or Jones, they would have been pushing McCarthy,” Breer said. “I think Darnold probably would have had a really good chance to win that job. But they wouldn’t have been, sort of, taking McCarthy out of the equation and saying, ‘OK, get ready for Year 3,’ like it would have been with Rodgers.
“That’s the real indicator there — is they want McCarthy, and they have wanted McCarthy, to evolve into their starting quarterback in 2025. That’s what they had planned for in 2024 and from a big-picture standpoint. This is right where they wanted to start to build aggressively around a young quarterback.”
It’s easy to see why Darnold chose to leave Minnesota this offseason. Even if he took less to stay with the Vikings and their loaded offense in 2025 on a one-year deal, Breer makes it sound like his chances of finishing the season as QB1 would have been razor-thin. It’s easier to justify a move to Seattle when it’s clear you have no long-term future with your current squad.
Minnesota could be playing with fire here, as it went pretty aggressive in the other direction since March. Instead of signing a proven veteran on a one-year deal at their preferred price, they punted QB2 until Day 3 of the NFL Draft and settled for young journeyman Sam Howell and undrafted rookie Max Brosmer.
Clearly, the Vikings are all-in on McCarthy for the 2025 season. Judging by Breer’s report, that’s been the plan all along.
MORE VIKINGS NEWS:
