Finally, the Minnesota Vikings will swing big
Days of rationalizing “very good” in the absence of “great” are over. Here's why the Vikings are showing the door to one QB (Sam Darnold) who threw for 4,319 yards and 35 TDs for J.J. McCarthy.
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The obvious franchise quarterback floated back into his locker room with the grace of a conquering hero. His hair somehow remained perfectly coiffed after three hours of flogging the Green Bay Packers’ defense inside U.S. Bank Stadium. But it didn’t last long.
Upon arrival, a horde of teammates mobbed and sprayed Sam Darnold with bottles of water while jumping. And screaming. And, nine seconds in, hoisting the Minnesota Vikings quarterback atop their shoulders. All season, the 27-year-old rarely ever steered from milquetoast cliches whenever cameras were near. At no point did Darnold allow himself to publicly savor his own storybook season.
Finally, it was time.
Darnold whipped his hat across the room, let out a rebel yell and danced to players serenading him in 50 Cent’s iconic “Many Men.”
This was the sort of pageantry reserved for championship wins, but who cares? Anyone with a pulse watching this clip from the team had no choice but to feel good for this jolly good fellow. After what Darnold endured his previous six seasons, he deserved it. That night — Dec. 29, 2024 — the Vikings players essentially sent a message to Kevin O’Connell, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the perpetually skeptic fan base: Sam Darnold is our quarterback today, tomorrow, years to come.
Then, everything fell apart.
“Pretty much right after that,” one Viking vet recalls, “it was over.”
With a No. 1 seed on the line in Game No. 272, the Vikings lost to the Detroit Lions, 31-9.
In the wild-card round against the Los Angeles Rams, they were smoked 27-9.
Now, as free agency opens up, the Vikings will tell a quarterback who threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns “thanks, but no thanks.” The press conferences have been warm and fuzzy with O’Connell praising Darnold at every turn. The dramatics have been raised on social media with all of the reporting big wigs guiding us through this game of quarterback musical chairs. But after that Rams game, the best guess here is that the Vikings never seriously considered starting any quarterback other than J.J. McCarthy in 2025 because the days of rationalizing “very good” in the absence of “great” are over.
O’Connell has spent three full years squeezing out as much as he could out of “good.”
He wisely moved on from Kirk Cousins.
He’ll now move on from Darnold.
The Vikings, finally, are plunging the franchise into the wondrous unknown and that’s the first step all champions take.