Sam Darnold named QB1 going into Training Camp

Yesterday, Minnesota Vikings’ head coach Kevin O’Connell made an announcement that isn’t terribly surprising but still worth taking a bit of time to talk about.

O’Connell officially declared veteran Sam Darnold the team’s #1 quarterback heading into Training Camp with all of the team’s Organized Team Activities basically over with.

The Vikings signed the former #3 overall pick to a one-year, $10 million contract this offseason following Kirk Cousins’ departure for Atlanta. The team then drafted J.J. McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft with a clear eye on the long-term future of the franchise. They also have both Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall on the roster at quarterback as well.

The team has repeatedly said that there are benchmarks that McCarthy will need to hit before they consider giving him the reins, and I’m guessing that mini-camps don’t figure a whole lot into determining whether or not he reaches those benchmarks or not. While the fan base might be wanting to see McCarthy get his opportunity sooner rather than later, the Vikings seem to be content to allow him to absorb as much as possible before putting him behind center.

It will be interesting to see how the Vikings handle the quarterback position going into the season with the players they currently have. If Darnold remains the starter and they don’t want to put McCarthy in danger of being thrown into action before he’s ready, you would assume that Mullens is going to be Darnold’s backup. That leaves the question of what the team does with Hall. They’ll likely try to get him to the practice squad, provided that a team doesn’t snipe him after he gets cut and is subject to waivers.

The league’s new rules allow for a quarterback on the practice squad to be elevated to the main roster as the team’s “emergency” quarterback an unlimited number of times, as opposed to last year when the #3 quarterback had to be on the 53-man roster. The team could do that with Hall serving as the #3 quarterback and having McCarthy as Darnold’s primary backup, but that leaves Mullens without a spot. Again, I’d be surprised if O’Connell didn’t want the veteran to back up Darnold, at least to start with, and let McCarthy wear a baseball cap and carry a clipboard for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, it’s still going to be about six weeks before we get anything that resembles an answer to these questions, but it makes the quarterback situation one of the primary ones to watch in Training Camp this summer.