It’s easier to take the high road when you’re sitting on top of the mountain.
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, who won the Super Bowl in his first season in Seattle, has no hard feelings about Minnesota’s decision to move on from him after a 14-3 season as the team’s starter.
“I totally understand the move to go with the younger quarterback on a rookie deal, and signing these veteran players that you can maybe pay a little bit more while he’s on his rookie deal, especially if you believe in him,” Darnold said in a recent appearance on The San Clemente Podcast. “Yeah, the business side of it, I totally understand. And like, I think J.J. [McCarthy] is a good player. I think he’s going to be a really good player in this league. I truly believe that. And, you know, for them to see that and be like, “Alright, we’re gonna, you know, Sam, that was a great year,’ but like the business part of it, it was like, ‘OK, like, you know, I totally understand.’”
It was perhaps more than a business consideration. Darnold’s performance in a Week 18, winner-take-all, game at Detroit raised questions about his ability to deliver in the biggest moments. (The wild-card loss eight days later was much more of a total-team failure, especially on the offensive side of the ball.) The Vikings ultimately had to decide whether to make the kind of commitment to Darnold that could have kept McCarthy on the bench for too long.
Still, it’s not as if Darnold broke the bank. His three-year, $100.5 million deal with the Seahawks had a one-year out, with a base package of $37.5 million paid in the first season. This year, he’s making $27.5 million. Which is well below the current market rate. (He deserves a raise, frankly.) The Vikings could have found a way to keep him, if they wanted.
There was a more political issue at play. The Vikings had traded up from No. 11 to No. 10 to draft McCarthy. They needed to see what he could do.
But, as history now shows, they also needed to have an accomplished veteran with starting experience, in the event that McCarthy was injured (he was) or struggled (he did). That’s how the 2025 Vikings season collapsed, and it surely played a role in the decision to fire G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
The Vikings tried to keep Daniel Jones. But he didn’t think he’d win the starting job. Jones instead went to the Colts, where he was more confident he’d become QB1, and he did.
This year, the Vikings got a massive bargain in Kyler Murray as the McCarthy alternative. And the coming season will answer many questions.
Will the Vikings decide to keep Murray, who wisely negotiated a no-tag clause for 2027? Will McCarthy step up and secure the long-term job? Will the Vikings be starting over at the position?
There’s no guarantee the Vikings would have had a dramatically better season if they’d kept Darnold or Jones. Still, even with the various struggles at the most important position on the field, the Vikings nearly won enough games to get to the postseason. It won’t take much to get them over the hump, as it relates to getting to the playoffs.
The question is whether the Vikings can do more than that. They haven’t won a playoff game since 2019, and coach Kevin O’Connell is 0-2 in the postseason. For as high as the Vikings were riding through 16 games of the 2024 season, there has been a hard fall. This year, it will be critical to turn things around — and then to sustain it into the next one.
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