Vikings' Kevin O'Connell says QB decision is an 'ongoing process'

Sam Darnold is set to hit free agency after a career year in Minnesota.

Feb 6, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell poses with the Coach of the Year award during Super Bowl LIX NFL Honors at Saenger Theatre. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Vikings are almost on the clock. The time to make a decision on how they'll handle their quarterback position is fast approaching. Whether Minnesota will bring back Sam Darnold or venture forth into the J.J. McCarthy era is the question that looms over everything else on the organization's to-do list this offseason.

Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell continues to remain vague when asked about the plan.

"It's an ongoing process right now," O'Connell said in an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show Thursday, when asked when he will make a decision.

When pressed by Patrick about whether he plans on having Darnold in Minnesota in 2025, O'Connell remained equally as elusive.

"The idea is this, we're evaluating how we're going to move forward and put the best possible team together in 2025 and beyond," replied O'Connell. "We know we're excited about J.J. McCarthy, he confirmed a lot of the things in a very short amount of time that we had hoped to see from him before unfortunately getting hurt. Then Sam took advantage of his opportunity and has really put himself as probably the premier player at the position going into free agency. Sam's going to have some opportunities. We're working through what that looks like for us while also having some other real impactful players set to be free agents as well. I think a lot goes into it. We haven't made that decision yet."

Subscribe to our free YouTube channel for fresh Vikings content

O'Connell was asked the same questions last week in New Orleans during Super Bowl week. He had similar comments, stating that "we would love to have Sam back in Minnesota" and following that up by saying "we drafted [J.J. McCarthy] 10th overall for a reason."

While the team continues to mull over its decision, O'Connell is keeping the lines of communication open with his three quarterbacks: Darnold, McCarthy, and Daniel Jones.

"I talked to all three, you know, J.J.'s here everyday, but I talked to Sam yesterday for a long time, talked to Daniel Jones for a long time. I just want those guys to know that there's an element in this where our relationship matters. The communication between me and those guys has to be paramount," continued O'Connell on Thursday. "The agents and our front office, those conversations will go on but what we try to build here is something that I hope is always beyond that, above that, especially me personally with the players."

The Vikings were put in this situation after Darnold took advantage of McCarthy's season-ending injury and had a career year as the team's starter, making the Pro Bowl and earning a few down-ballot MVP votes. Asked who would have been the Vikings' starter if McCarthy hadn't been injured, O'Connell stated he probably would have leaned towards starting Darnold to begin the season anyways.

"We had just seen J.J. play in his first preseason game," O'Connell said. "There was a lot of positive things on that tape that left us as a coaching staff saying, 'You know, we absolutely need to see this thing through to the end of training camp.' But at the same time — everybody, and rightly so, everybody was talking about J.J. as the first round pick and an exciting young player we were fired up to have in our organization — Sam Darnold was having a really good camp. It was showing up day in and day out.

"I would argue that both guys would have continued on through and I would probably say Sam Darnold would have been our starting quarterback, just out of the experience and knowing that I am very much constantly aware of the minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day development of quarterbacks."

---

Stay up to date on all things Vikings by bookmarking Minnesota Vikings On SI, subscribing to our YouTube channel, and signing up to receive our free Vikings newsletter.