The Minnesota Vikings made the decision this past offseason to go with J.J. McCarthy rather than meet the financial demands that Sam Darnold had after an impressive 2024 NFL season.
Nonetheless, this decision is under the spotlight with Darnold performing well with the Seattle Seahawks, who gave him a three-year, $100.5 million contract in March 2025, with $55 million guaranteed, per Spotrac.
Despite Darnold completing 68.2 percent of his passes for 1,754 yards, 12 touchdowns, four interceptions, and a 109.2 passer rating, ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes believes the Vikings shouldn’t regret choosing McCarthy over the USC product.
“It’s too early to tell,” Kimes said on the October 23 edition of “First Take.” “Like at the moment, yes, it looks like it, right? But JJ McCarthy has attempted 41 passes in the NFL. I’m not going to write the kid off right now based on such a small sample size. When he played, the offensive line was injured. A lot of his game is predicated on athleticism. I think that might be factoring into the ankle aspect of this.
“And I want to be clear, I understand if Vikings fans are watching Sam Darnold, who is thriving in Seattle and feeling some kind of way, but this front office made a decision to go with youth and to bet on it. And I don’t think we can judge them for that when the kid’s barely played football.”
Dan Orlovsky Backs Mina Kimes on J.J. McCarthy Take
Kimes isn’t the only one defending the Vikings’ decision to let Darnold walk and begin the McCarthy era. Fellow ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky stated that Minnesota wouldn’t have the same roster now if the front office opted to pay Darnold.
“I agree with Mina,” Orlovsky said on “First Take.” “Like, let’s figure out what the young man is. And three, this offseason, the Vikings in the one that we teamwise know right now added Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave, Byron Murphy, Isaiah Rogers, they re-signed Aaron Jones, signed Ryan Kelly, and Will Fries. Okay? So, you’re not signing all of those people to your football team if you have Sam Darnold.”
Vikings Choose More Depth Over Sam Darnold
Moreover, Orlovsky noted that the Vikings decided to take advantage of having a quarterback on a rookie contract to fill out their roster rather than handing over a significant amount of money to Darnold.
“So, this football team that took J.J. McCarthy two years ago in the draft had to make a decision this year of was it going to be Sam Darnold for probably somewhere around $45 or $50 million and then you’re not having one of those interior offensive line pieces or one of those interior defensive line pieces or maybe you’re not getting Isaiah Rogers from the Eagles,” Orlovsky added.
“You’re not getting Sam Darnold and the roster. So, this organization decided they were going to choose the roster and since they had taken J.J., figure out along the way what kind of player he’s going to be.”
It will be interesting to see what this looks like after the season, but for now, the Vikings will need to be patient with McCarthy and hope that they made the right decision in the long term.
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