Who Would Have Started if J.J. McCarthy Didn’t Get Hurt? Kevin O’Connell Tells All.
Sam Darnold would’ve started the season for the 2024 Minnesota Vikings, almost no matter what.
Kevin O’Connell Tells All: Who Would’ve Started if J.J. McCarthy Didn’t Get Hurt?
Kevin O’Connell joined The Dan Patrick Show this week, and Patrick asked the young coach what would’ve happened at quarterback if J.J. McCarthy never tore his meniscus.
O’Connell made sure to compliment McCarthy’s summer development but ultimately said Darnold would’ve taken the QB1 baton into September. “I would probably say Sam Darnold would’ve been our starting quarterback just out of the experience and knowing that I am constantly aware of the minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day development of quarterbacks,” O’Connell told Patrick.
Minnesota added two new quarterbacks last offseason after saying goodbye to Kirk Cousins — Darnold from free agency and McCarthy from the draft. Both competed at training camp and in the first preseason game, while fans weren’t quite sure who would win the QB1 title. Most decided “probably Darnold” because there was no rush to toss McCarthy into the lineup right away at age 21.
O’Connell added about McCarthy, “We had just seen J.J. play in his first preseason game. There was a lot of positive things on that tape that led us as a coaching staff to say, ‘We absolutely need to see this thing through to the end of training camp.’ At that same time, and rightly so, everyone was talking about J.J. as the 1st-Round pick, an exciting young player we were fired up to have in our organization.”
Darnold, indeed, emerged as the clear QB1 when McCarthy tore his meniscus, and the rest was bittersweet history. The veteran passer led Minnesota to a 14-3 season, followed by a one-and-done in the postseason. Darnold actually played miserably in the season’s final two games.
Fast forward to the 2025 offseason — like, now — and it’s a conversation of “Darnold or McCarthy?” all over again. Darnold is scheduled to hit free agency in 3.5 weeks, where he can land a contract near $40 million per season. McCarthy, meanwhile, just wants a chance to start for the team that drafted him.
“There’s a lot of things that are certainly above my pay grade and some things above his pay grade,” McCarthy replied last week when asked about his teammate Darnold’s impending free agency.
McCarthy told Rich Eisen, “All I could ask for is a fair opportunity. That’s the one thing I feel like everybody’s given and it’s fundamental. When money gets involved, things get complicated and reps get skewed and there’s different things that come into the whole political world that everyone talks about. I really just have to focus on controlling what I can control.”
But as a matter of revisionist history, Darnold, not McCarthy, would have started Week 1 last September at the New York Giants.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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