Just a couple of years ago, the Minnesota Vikings found plenty of success with Sam Darnold at the helm.
Somewhat surprisingly, the former No. 3 pick helped them win 14 games, and while he fell flat in the biggest game of the season, that was enough to get him a contract with the Seattle Seahawks.
While Darnold and the Seahawks won the Super Bowl the following season, the Vikings regressed with J.J. McCarthy at the helm, to the point where he may not even be their quarterback of the future anymore.
Judging by head coach Kevin O’Connell‘s comments on Kyler Murray, it seems that he thinks the Vikings can do something similar to what they accomplished with Darnold.
Kyler Murray might be leading the Vikings’ quarterback race
“But at the same time, guys we’ve had a lot of success with different veteran quarterbacks at different stages of their career, whether it was Sam Darnold or Kirk Cousins, and now we want to do everything we can to provide Kyler Murray with a great opportunity and see what he can do with it,” O’Connell told R.org.
Those comments can’t be overlooked. It sounds like O’Connell anticipates Murray to be the starter.
Not only will that cast doubts about McCarthy’s future with the organization, but it also shows that the Vikings don’t want to make the same mistake twice.
They had Darnold and Daniel Jones in the building and chose not to pursue Aaron Rodgers because of McCarthy, only to watch him struggle and get hurt often.
Murray is a proven veteran and a former No. 1 pick, and it’s hard to blame him for everything that went wrong in Arizona.
And with a quarterback guru like O’Connell calling the shots and an elite wide receiver corps, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him join the ever-growing list of late-bloomers who only needed a change of scenery to be at their best.