The biggest question swirling around the Minnesota Vikings as they head into training camp is, by far, the situation at quarterback. While it’s been made clear by the coaches that Sam Darnold is the QB1 heading into camp, the question of how long it will take for rookie J.J. McCarthy to overtake him will persist until the change comes. But when will that be?
The answer to that is up to Darnold. As The Athletic’s Minnesota Vikings beat writer Alec Lewis reports, it will be a matter of how Darnold plays determining when McCarthy eventually takes the reins. If Darnold plays well throughout the season, he’ll continue to be the starter. As Lewis puts it:
Definitely [will not see J.J. McCarthy] in Week 1. Probably not in the first quarter of the season. Potentially not even in the first half of the season. There is even a scenario in which he shouldn’t be expected to start at all this year… If Darnold is dominating, dishing the ball easily and limiting turnovers, and the Vikings are winning, why mess with the chemistry or team trajectory? Similarly, if Darnold is struggling, and the Vikings are not competitive, it’ll be difficult for O’Connell to quiet the noise for McCarthy.
So the question then becomes, “How well is Darnold likely to perform, and for how long?” Darnold’s detractors will point to his tenure with the Jets and Panthers to prove that, despite being the second quarterback taken—and third pick overall—in the 2018 NFL Draft, he simply does not have the stuff.
Supporters of Darnold will contend that Darnold was thrown into a bad situation with the Jets and Panthers, which were not set up for his growth and development. Now, with a few years under his belt and in a much more quarterback-friendly situation, he’ll finally have a chance to unlock his potential.
Supporters will also add in the fact that Darnold has never had a supporting cast like the one he’ll experience with the Vikings. He had a great supporting cast in San Francisco, yes, but he was never given a real opportunity at that job. He was always a backup and saw very limited action backing up Brock Purdy.
In truth, the answer probably lies somewhere in between. Darnold’s situation will likely mitigate some of the disasters we saw during his time in New York and Carolina, but the fact that the light bulb hasn’t turned on yet likely means that he’s not going to suddenly turn into a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback even with the supporting cast.
We’ll have to wait and see what that means for McCarthy and his inevitable rise to the top of the quarterback depth chart.
