All too often, answers to seemingly difficult decisions tend to reveal themselves in time. For the Vikings, the right way to resolve their quarterback quandary has become apparent in the last 120 minutes of football.
When the lights got the brightest, Sam Darnold reverted to his ghost-seeing ways. And that makes it a lot easier to allow Darnold to become a free agent and to move forward with 2024 first-rounder J.J. McCarthy.
Some think McCarthy would be the top quarterback prospect in the incoming class of draft picks. Not long ago, that created a temptation to try to trade McCarthy. Now, it should be regarded as a glass-half-full reason to believe that things will be even better if/when McCarthy is running the offense.
And to the extent the Vikings want to keep an experienced veteran around, how about Daniel Jones? Drafted in the top 10 by the Giants in the first round the year after the Jets traded up to No. 3 to get Darnold, Jones accomplished more than Darnold in his pre-Minnesota days. And it became clear after the Giants cut Jones that he wasn’t the problem with that team.
Regardless, the Vikings should be seriously considering saying vaya con dios to Darnold. Someone else will give him a starting job. And he’ll do well in the regular season. But if the Vikings hope to ever get back to another Super Bowl, they should move on from the player who slammed his head against a ceiling over the last two weeks and see if McCarthy can do for Minnesota what he did for Michigan.
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