The Vikings did not look to be planning to start J.J. McCarthy to open the season, but their design of an extended onramp will change. After Tuesday’s news of the rookie quarterback’s meniscus injury, today’s surgery will entrench Sam Darnold atop Minnesota’s depth chart.
McCarthy underwent a full meniscus repair, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero. As a result, the No. 10 overall pick will miss the entire 2024 season. Viewing this through a long-term lens, the Vikings will park McCarthy for his rookie year. This, of course, changes the Michigan product’s developmental path.
A full repair loomed as a possibility, and this situation has escalated after Monday reports indicated the rookie was dealing with knee soreness. Instead of McCarthy seeing important practice reps and taking over for Darnold at some point this season, this will keep the younger passer off the practice field. After never taking a quarterback in the top 10 prior to trading up for McCarthy, the Vikings will continue a streak of never having a first-year QB start in Week 1 (h/t Ed Werder).
Coming into the offseason, Minnesota had not given up on re-signing Kirk Cousins. But the sides did not see eye-to-eye regarding a vision or compensation, leading the six-year Vikings starter to Atlanta. That development turned this Vikes offseason into a scouting mission, with the team acquiring a second first-round pick as ammo for a trade-up. The Vikings did not end up using that Texans-obtained selection to climb up for a passer, but they made McCarthy the centerpiece of their first post-Cousins offseason. Darnold’s stopgap season suddenly becomes much more important — both for the Vikings and the former No. 3 overall pick.
Still just 27 despite going into his seventh season, Darnold has received extensive run as a starter. Despite backing up Brock Purdy throughout last season, Darnold’s start count sits at 56. While the former Jets draftee is 21-35 as a starter, he was tied to two franchises that did not have much support around him. The Jets bailed on Darnold to draft Zach Wilson in 2021, and then-Panthers HC Matt Rhule turned to Baker Mayfield via trade in 2022. Darnold received a late-season batch of starts with Carolina following Rhule’s ouster, but no starting role opened for the USC product in free agency last year.
The Vikings did offer one, signing Darnold on a one-year deal worth $10MM and outflanking the Broncos and Commanders — though, it is unclear how serious the other teams’ pursuits went — to add him. Being saddled with shaky situations, Darnold has struggled. He has never ranked higher than 25th in QBR for a season in which he took enough snaps to qualify. This could well be Darnold’s last shot, but the outlook has changed; the imminent threat to his starting job no longer exists.
Kevin O’Connell communicated with the veteran — before the team chose McCarthy — he would be the team’s season-opening starter. As teams rarely give first-rounders full seasons to sit and learn anymore, McCarthy was widely expected to see action this season. It now turns into a mid-career Darnold audition, and the presences of Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Aaron Jones and T.J. Hockenson — when the tight end recovers fully, that is — present by far the best set of weaponry the QB has enjoyed (excepting 49ers practices) in his NFL career.
Still, this doubles as a tough blow for a Vikings franchise that has been unable to see a quarterback development project enjoy sustained success. Knee injuries have intervened early in Vikings first-rounders’ careers as well. A severe knee injury sustained during a 2016 preseason practice shelved 2014 first-rounder Teddy Bridgewater for nearly two seasons. Daunte Culpepper‘s starter run abruptly ended in 2005, when a knee injury provided a clear line of demarcation in the passer’s career.
Veterans — from Cousins to Case Keenum to Brett Favre — have delivered Minnesota its most success since Culpepper went down. The team is now relying on a player who has offered glimpses but one that also has not come close to delivering on his draft status. And McCarthy will need to wait until the 2025 offseason to resume full-scale preparations for his first regular-season snaps.
Sam Darnold to the rescue!!
Great. Now I can’t get “Jim Dandy to the rescue” out of my head lol
Go… go… go… Sam Darnold!
Yeah, it’s somber news in Minnesota, the locals are a bit depressed. They aren’t appreciative of my Brock Purdy jersey 😀
F*** em! Lol
Ouch. Well that’s not good. Sorry for the kid.
Meh. Rub some snow on it, he’ll be fine…
In other news, Ryan Tannehill’s phone might be ringing.
lol, we didn’t get any snow last year…
@highway you must of never watched him before. He can’t win the big one but he is a top 10 QB.
I bet Dak would love to be a Viking… they should sign and trade
You want them to pull a Falcons’ move? Sign a vet to a high dollar deal and have a 1st round QB sit for a few years?
Do you agree w/ the Falcons offseason? Came across as awkward to me.
Classroom time is fine. But it would have been better for him to at least get the minimum reps he would have gotten than none at all. Maybe even some mop up time. Just sitting helps nothing IMO. What if he sits all year and the Coach gets fired? Then it’s completely wasting 1 year out of four from his rookie deal. And before you say that can’t happen we are talking about the NFL.
Falcons are different… they paid for a QB then drafted one when they had a bigger need. Viking drafted one but would become a better team by trading for dak. even when Macarthy gets back they would be better with dak
Better with Dak? No team is better with Dak, guy is a joke of a QB.
When was Dak up for trade?
How exactly would they do a sign and trade when Dak is under contract? I believe the word you are looking for is trade. Which the Cowboys would have less than zero interest in doing.
Does Minnesota have the cap space to make a play for Prescott? Opening bids are $60 million/season, cash on the barrel, future seasons guaranteed.
Absolute stupidity to get involved with Dak Prescott, who’s milked the Cowboys dry and is looking for his next landing spot, like a succubus. Maybe Minnesota is the right landing spot. It was for Kirk Cousins, a similar payday-oriented specialist.
As a Bear fan I have no warm feelings for the Vikings, but I hate to see that kid go down. It would’ve been fun to watch the progression of the young QBs in the North this season. I think it’s gonna become a helluva competitive division over time.
Being out with an injury is obviously not ideal but I always thought JJ would need at least a year to just learn and develop anyway so this might not be the worst thing? At the very least, O’Connell won’t have to worry about the fans/media calling for him to rush JJ into the starting job if Darnold underperforms.
Small English grammar lesson. The last sentence should read:
Wow ! Seems like alota down time for a meniscus tear … a year ? He’s redshirting now. Vikes might be in market for Taylor Heinicke. Should be able to acquire em on cheap from Atlanta.
It requires surgery, not the “clean up” repair that is sometimes done. This is a6-9 month recovery. A clean up would only be a few weeks. Pretty sure this is what derailed Demarcus Cousins years ago.
See Lonzo Ball. The old way to deal with Meniscus tears used to be just take it out. But now they’re realizing that it actually serves a real purpose and now they have ways to fix it. Over the long haul if you just take it out, You’ll eventually get arthritis and probably sooner than later. They obviously decided to repair it, Thus the longer recovery time. I’m not a DR., Just a guess based on my knowledge of the Lonzo debacle.
Packer fan here. Sorry to hear this.
While I want to win every game vs the Vikes, I hate seeing a player (especially a highly considered rookie QB) go down.
Damn I hate to see it. Wish him a speedy recovery
Oof! Least they’ll have a good pick in next year’s draft to build around him…
Sadly that is an issue for MIN. The have a 1st rounder next year but they already traded away the 2nd round pick to BUF and the 3rd and 4th round picks to JAX.
MIN does have a Compensatory pick at the end of the 3rd round but MIN basically traded away all their picks in next years draft. The are going to have to trade back out of the 1st round just to recoup some lost draft capital imo.
Deja-vu for the Vikings. Looks like I might have to consider Sam Bradford as a fantasy league option now…lol.
He won’t throw any interceptions for you!
Out for the season seems like a long time for a meniscus repair.
People have no idea how bad meniscus repair is. Long term way worse than an ACL.
Meniscus repair isn’t that bad. Typical recovery is 2-3 months. If he had to have a meniscal replacement, it makes more sense. But typically it is a pretty quick recovery based on my experience pushing work comp claims.
Damn, he looked pretty good in his preseason debut.
What is it about Minnesota though, zero luck drafting QB’s but a solid track record of reviving WB careers…
What happens in a hypothetical world where Sam comes in and balls out.
I would assume he at least gets fined for wearing inappropriate attire, but I dont know the specific rules.
Made me laugh
McCarthy and a 2nd for Penix jr
Did he call Ms Cleo about those ghosts he sees?
link to x.com
It happened last year