Sam Darnold has played well enough to leave the Vikings more open-minded about their 2025 plans than many realize, according to sources familiar with the Vikings' thinking. They have not ruled out offering him a contract for next season, despite widespread assumptions they will let him sign elsewhere in free agency and hand the job to J.J. McCarthy, who has spent his rookie season recovering from a torn meniscus in his right knee.

Related players: Daniel Jones

The story added the Vikings have also prepared to move on from Darnold, especially if he receives a more lucrative offer from another QB-needy team. Darnold agreed to wear a modified camera on his helmet during practices and walk-throughs to help McCarthy during his recovery process, the story said. McCarthy uses the video to simulate practice reps via virtual reality. The Vikings also signed Jones, who was released by the Giants, to their practice squad last month, a move widely viewed as an early look at a potential candidate to replace Darnold next season as the veteran alongside McCarthy.

Surgery on J.J. McCarthy’s torn meniscus revealed that a repair was necessary and the Vikings rookie quarterback now will miss the 2024 season.

While the Vikings are disappointed, they “strongly believe he will come back better and have a long, successful NFL career”, as one team official said. But rookie season is over.

Related Players: Sam Darnold, Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall

So much for a QB controversy.

This will be Sam Darnold's job, which makes him an interesting target deep in Superflex/2QB leagues.

Coach Kevin O’Connell has announced that quarterback J.J. McCarthy will undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee.

Related players: Sam Darnold, Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall

As the story went on to say, the threshold question is whether he’ll have the meniscus trimmed or repaired. As to the former, the player can come back quickly. As to the latter, he could miss several months. The story also pointed out that the other side of the coin is that a repair maximizes the amount of cartilage in the knee. A trim reduces the cushioning, setting the stage for a potential bone-on-bone situation. The story added what it thinks is the smart, long-term play - to get the meniscus repaired and the team goes with Darnold in 2024 and Hall would be the backup. McCarthy could potentially make a return around November. This is just the opinion of the author of course, we should get more information soon. For now, Darnold should get a bump in value with McCarthy at least temporarily out of the picture. He has the weapons around him to be a potential QB2 and superflex option.

Rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy is not participating in the Vikings’ Monday night practice.

Coach Kevin O’Connell said McCarthy reported right knee soreness to the team’s medical staff.

Related players: Sam Darnold

McCarthy played 30 snaps in the preseason opener and went 11-of-17 for 188 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He was scheduled to receive more snaps with the first-team offense this week, O’Connell said in the story. The team said they sat him out of precaution and also wanted to run more tests.

As the third week of camp nears an end, Sam Darnold has received all but two of the first-team reps in 11-on-11 drills. J.J. McCarthy got the other two. This should be no surprise to anyone who has listened to coach Kevin O'Connell talk about the position. While McCarthy is clearly the club's future quarterback, team leaders are in agreement that his ascension will not be rushed.

Any doubts that Darnold will start the season as QB1 seem to be out the window at this point. The Vikings do have a tough opening schedule, with the 49ers, Texans, Packers, and re-vamped Jets coming before their Week 6 Bye. McCarthy could be a play by the second half of the season, so we'll see how he looks for streaming purposes if/when that time comes.

QB Sam Darnold will take the majority of first-team snaps when camp opens, Kevin O'Connell reiterated.

Related players: J.J. McCarthy

Darnold was expected to be the bridge quarterback when the team signed him and also drafted McCarthy in the first round. McCarthy should also see first-team reps, but it seems like the Vikings are sticking with Darnold as the QB1 plan, at least early on in the season.

Sam Darnold will continue as the Minnesota Vikings' lead quarterback when training camp opens next month, coach Kevin O'Connell said Wednesday as the team wrapped up its final OTA of the spring.

O'Connell stopped short of projecting anything beyond that, saying he plans for a "competitive" training camp at many positions. The Vikings have three other quarterbacks on their roster: Rookie J.J. McCarthy and veterans Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall.

Even if Darnold begins Week 1 as the starting quarterback, we shouldn't assume that continues deep into the season. McCarthy can still be targeted (very) late in best ball drafts, while neither option should be in consideration for typical 1QB redraft leagues.