Going into the 2024 season, the Minnesota Vikings are going to be fascinating to watch. While they do have rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the fold, former first-round pick Sam Darnold is likely to be the starting quarterback in week one against the New York Giants.
Having Darnold as the starter for the season opener is an interesting idea. He was selected third overall by the New York Jets in 2018 and was dealt bad hand after bad hand consistently. As much as talent matters to play in the National Football League, you need to have a good situation and surroundings as well. Darnold didn't have that once until last season when he was the backup to Brock Purdy for the Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers.
Coming to Minnesota, Darnold arguably has the best supporting cast he's ever had with star players at all of the skill positions and both offensive tackle spots. It will give him the best chance to succeed in his entire career.
The Vikings didn't just sign him because they needed a bridge guy, the believe Darnold has untapped potential. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, who has a long history with the Vikings organization as a former beat reporter, breaks it down on Sports Center from Saturday morning.
"Let's go to the Vikings. Sam Darnold. The Vikings believe there is untapped potential here, that there's a lot of ability. He's never had a supporting cast quite like this. So they believe he can not only start games, but potentially thrive if everything goes well. So their plan would be to sit J.J. McCarthy to an unknown amout of games, whether it's a full season, however many games, they believe that if he could learn a high volume passing system behind the scenes, at least for a little bit, it would be good for him."
This is something that we broke down last week because it's a realistic outcome for the Vikings. It would be a similar conundrum that the San Diego Chargers faced in 2004 when Drew Brees broke out the year they selected Eli Manning and traded for Phillip Rivers. It's a quarterback conundrum that would be another Champagne problem for the Vikings.
There is a realistic outcome for the Vikings that Darnold could be legit good in this system with this offense. If that ends up being the case, the Vikings could be a surprising team in 2024 to not just make the playoffs, but potentially win the NFC North.
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