Vikings Turned Down the Almighty Sales Pitch
What could have been.
Vikings Turned Down the Almighty Sales Pitch
Last month, while the Minnesota Vikings added new players right and left, especially in the offensive and defensive trenches, fans became fixated on the possibility of Aaron Rodgers joining the purple team’s roster. Rodgers’ predecessor in Green Bay, Brett Favre, created a blueprint for the process 16 years ago, and many thought Rodgers would follow suit.
He did not, and thanks to SI.com, onlookers learned this week that the Vikings turned down the almighty sales pitch.
“Nope” to Aaron Rodgers, per SI.com
SI.com‘s Albert Breer wrote a full-length article about J.J. McCarthy’s rise to QB1 so far this offseason, mentioning the would-be Rodgers relationship, an insightful piece because most Vikings fans finally accepted that Rodgers won’t lead Minnesota in 2025 after much speculation.
Breer explained, “They wanted to respect the year Darnold had and discussed a run-it-back scenario with the 28-year-old. Darnold found another team, in Seattle, willing to give him the chance to be a multi-year answer, so the Vikings made a strong offer to Jones, who joined the team in November. They pitched him on competing with tools around him to revive his career, but Jones preferred a fresh start without the Darnold comp hanging over him, and perhaps a better shot to start with the Indianapolis Colts.”
“Which is where Rodgers entered the equation. When the four-time MVP reached out to the Vikings, with the idea of making a one-year run at a Lombardi and tying it to being a willing mentor for McCarthy, the team felt it had to listen.”
Approximately 10%-20% of the Vikings fan base wanted the franchise to sign Rodgers, apparently believing he could emulate Favre in 2009, who came within minutes of leading the Vikings to a Super Bowl appearance.
“The proposition, of course, was different than the other two—they’d be jamming the pause button on the idea of playing McCarthy, rather than generating competition and multiple quarterback options,” Breer added.
“In the end, faced with all that, the Vikings found themselves emboldened to give McCarthy the runway to seize the job, the staff the opportunity to build the offense for him, and see how that looked at the end of the spring. So the Vikings passed on Rodgers, pushing their chips in on a 22-year-old.”
Backward Thinking
Before too long, Rodgers will retire, and at that moment, he’ll be exactly five years away from Hall of Fame induction. No one will question his career’s stardom and legitimacy.
However, adding him to Minnesota’s roster just one year removed from drafting McCarthy would’ve symbolized backward thinking, pumping the brakes on McCarthy and jumping into bed with a 41-year-old who hasn’t won a Super Bowl in 15 years.
Entertaining Rodgers and his one-year sales pitch required attention and diligence, but it never checked too many boxes for a Vikings leadership regime that embraces change and progressivism.
A Commitment to the Plan
During the 2024 NFL Draft — not that long ago — Minnesota carefully deliberated its quarterback-of-the-future plan, moving on from Kirk Cousins after six seasons in March 2024. The club examined a deep draft class that included McCarthy, Drake Maye, Michael Penix Jr., and Bo Nix as viable quarterback draftees, ultimately landing on McCarthy from Michigan.
The team didn’t pick McCarthy on a whim, nor was the young passer some kind of “maybe this will work” solution. He was the plan, so saying “no thanks” to Rodgers’ plea makes sense retrospectively.
The Vikings created a plan, executed it, and didn’t balk, even when a sure-fire Hall of Famer tried some seduction.
The Old Way of Doing Things
Minnesota has seldom resisted the temptation of a once-productive, aging quarterback. In fact, rolling with players like Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Jeff George, Brett Favre, and almost-Dan-Marino in 2000 is a staple of Vikings history.
To be fair, the strategy usually works — but just doesn’t fetch Lombardi trophies. Moons, Cunninghams, Georges, and Favres often bring the Vikings to the cusp of the Promised Land before guaranteed shortcomings.
This time, Minnesota declined the old way of doing things.
Kevin O’Connell on J.J. McCarthy
O’Connell told Breer about McCarthy: “I’m excited to see him get that opportunity to pick up where he left off and be accelerated, just because of the mental growth that he’s been able to have within our offense, and the verbiage and how we talk about plays.”
“So it’s just a matter of continuing to progress, knowing we feel good about the football team we’ve put together. We’ve got the goal of surrounding the quarterback with the best possible team we can, both offensively and defensively. We feel really good about what that looks like.”
McCarthy missed his entire rookie season with a busted meniscus, and that’s part of the reason fans wanted to nibble at the Rodgers sweepstakes. The young Wolverine is an unknown.
“We won’t know until we get out on the grass with him. But my expectation is he’s going to have a great spring and we’re going to feel really good about him going into training camp,” O’Connell added.
Still Some QB2 Turmoil
Meanwhile, probably after the draft, Minnesota will need another quarterback unless current QB2 Brett Rypien is the fix. QB2 options have flown off the free-agent board in mass fashion as the Vikings have shown little interest in partaking.
So, without Rodgers in the mix, the team may be down to Ryan Tannehill and Carson Wentz for backup alternatives. Trades for men like Sam Howell (Seattle Seahawks), Will Levis (Tennessee Titans), or Aidan O’Connell (Las Vegas Raiders) could also be in play.
But barring emergency, it won’t be Rodgers and his alluring one-year Lombardi proposal.
Minnesota has a McCarthy for that.
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