J.J. McCarthy Has Always Been Minnesota's 2025 QB1

After Sam Darnold’s three-year commitment to the Seattle Seahawks and the Vikings’ self-withdrawal from the Aaron Rodgers sweepstakes (if they were even ever really truly in it, to begin with), there’s one thing that has been made clear that I have personally felt has been the case since the night of April 25th, 2024: J.J. McCarthy is the plan.

He is, has been, and will be the plan going forward. With each domino that falls, that becomes more and more crystal clear. The very first domino came on the night that he was drafted, an obvious one, but Minnesota traded up one spot with the New York Jets to ensure that they secured the rights to McCarthy so the Denver Broncos (who claim they wanted Bo Nix all along, and that they “got” the Vikings) couldn’t trade up themselves to snipe McCarthy off of the board before the Vikings had a chance.

With the Seattle Seahawks’ signing of Sam Darnold, it’s easy to see how it’s a sign that Minnesota is rolling the McCarthy way, but it makes even more sense when you peel back another layer. We were talking about Sam Darnold getting paid $40 million or more on his next contract, wherever he ended up, and it didn’t even really come near that. The Seahawks got Darnold for only an average annual value of about $33 million, and that’s just on the surface.

Per Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, the Seahawks can very easily get out of the Darnold deal after just one season and the $37.5 million that the QB is fully guaranteed in 2025. Darnold’s 2026 guarantees are only for $17.5 million in case of injury; that doesn’t even guarantee until the week of next year’s Super Bowl. His 2027 money, the final year of his Seattle deal, is completely non-guaranteed.