Vikings QB decision: Here’s how Matt Ryan would handle Minnesota’s Sam Darnold-JJ McCarthy conundrum

The Minnesota Vikings’ mastermind group of general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell has the biggest choice an NFL team faces when building the roster: what should they do with their starting quarterback position?

Minnesota’s 2024 starter, seven-year veteran and third overall pick of the New York Jets in 2018, Sam Darnold, is set to enter free agency, having thrown for a tied 35 regular season touchdowns second most in a single season in Vikings history. The team also has JJ McCarthy waiting in the wings after the 2024 10th overall pick suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason.

Fortunately for Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell, CBS Sports NFL analyst Matt Ryan, 2016 NFL MVP and four-time Pro Bowl quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons, is happy to provide his perspective for free. He’s doing it for a friend in O’Connell since both were part of the 2008 NFL Draft quarterback class. Ryan was the first quarterback after being selected third overall by Atlanta, and O’Connell was the fifth quarterback chosen after being chosen 94th overall (third round) by the New England Patriots.

“That was the guy in front of me at the combine, man, really. Yeah, he says all the time, I fooled him at the Wonderlic (test),” Ryan said with a laugh over the phone Wednesday. “I don’t agree with that, but that’s what he says.”

The Vikings can take several different paths to make this decision. Here are some potential options:

Vikings options at QB

• Re-sign Darnold, bench McCarthy for a few years (Green Bay Packers’ plan)
• Re-sign Darnold and trade McCarthy
• Let Darnold hit free agency and move on to McCarthy
• Mark franchise Darnold for 2025, let McCarthy sit behind him for one more year before turning to him
• Franchise Darnold and trade him this offseason and move on to McCarthy for 2025 and beyond

When you think about what to do, it’s worthless. Darnold played like a top-10 quarterback for most of the 2024 season, weeks 1 through 17. However, he struggled when the lights were brightest during a 31-9 loss in of the 18th week against the Detroit Lions – a game which was at stake for the NFC North division title and the first seed in the conference playoffs – and in the 27th Minnesota game. -9 wild card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. In fact, Darnold’s nine sacks recovered in the Vikings’ playoff loss tied the NFL’s all-time record for most sacks sacked in a playoff game.

These last two weeks are why Ryan would move past Darnold to see what the Vikings can get out of teams via trade and then move on to McCarthy.

“Obviously the last couple of weeks have been disappointing,” Ryan said. “No. 1 Vikings, No. 2 Sam, but you know, they still played a lot of good football throughout the year. I think for this whole building, the next step for them is to do it at the end of the year. To do it when it matters most at the end of the regular season, to do it as they enter the playoffs and that’s the process of growth and maturation. it was me, I would probably franchise Sam Darnold, then I would buy. Take the time to explore all avenues Whether it’s trading him (him), and whether you feel good about JJ (McCarthy) or that (keeping Darnold) for a year (then move on) or. whatever that looks like, that (trading him) would probably be the direction I would go, but I’m not in the building every day, so they would know better than me.

W.L.	14-2 (T-2nd)	0-2 (T-Last)
PCT Comp	68.1% (9th)	53.1% (30th)
Skip YPG	259.6 (5th)	205.5 (22nd)
Pass yards/attempt	8.2 (4th)	5.1 (30th)
TD-INT	35-12 (10th)	1-1 (T-21st)
Passing mark	106.4 (5th)	66.4 (28th)
Dismissed times	46 (31st)	11 (last)
Turnover	16 (T-29)	2 (T-24)

* Ranks out of 34 qualified QBs

**Ranking out of 31 QBs with at least 25 pass attempts between Week 18 and the wild-card round of the playoffs

What the Vikings have in their favor when it comes to trading Darnold is that there is a significant drop-off after him in terms of quarterback options in 2025 NFL free agency , and there is a similar, sharp decline in the 2025 NFL Draft quarterback class. Miami quarterback Cam Ward (fourth prospect in the 2025 CBS Sports Draft) and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders (10th prospect in the 2025 CBS Sports Draft) are universally considered top 10, if not top five first. The two teams at the top of the draft – the Tennessee Titans (first overall) and the Cleveland Browns (second overall) – both have quarterback needs. Following these two prospects, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe (32nd prospect in the 2025 CBS Sports Draft), Texas’ Quinn Ewers (52nd prospect in the 2025 CBS Sports Draft), Ole Miss’ Jaxon Dart (82nd prospect in the draft of CBS Sports in 2025) and Syracuse’s Kyle McCord (CBS Sports’ 90th draft prospect) is the best of the rest.

This means Minnesota could find a strong trade market for Darnold given the New York Giants (third overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft), Las Vegas Raiders (sixth overall pick in the NFL Draft). 2025) and the New York Jets (seventh overall pick in the 2025 NFL). Draft) are all hungry for a long-term option at quarterback. The time for the Vikings to make their crucial decision is coming soon with free agency approaching in March.