Early in Vikings camp, the quarterback conversation is still the main event, and Kevin O’Connell is sticking to the same careful, polished routine he’s used all along. Until he actually names a starter - something he’s made clear should happen sooner rather than later - he’s going to keep answering like a coach who’d rather say a lot without giving much away.
That same theme showed up again in the latest comments from Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, who both drifted back into O’Connell-style nonanswers after sounding different in June.
Former NFL head coach Jon Gruden, though, took a much sharper swing at Minnesota while talking through the situation on FS1’s “ Wake Up Barstool,” and his criticism missed a pretty important piece of the story. He was asked about the timing of naming a starter in a quarterback competition and said preseason games don’t tell you much because starters barely play. Even so, he leaned hard into the Vikings’ supposed mistakes.
“I gotta think that Kyler Murray is gonna be the guy personally, but I don’t understand what the hell is going on in Minnesota. How you let Sam Darnold walk out of there after the year he had, winning 14 games, and how you let Daniel Jones out of there, I have no idea. You get what you deserve in this business, but knowing Kevin O’Connell, I’m sure he’ll figure it out.”
The problem with that take is that it leaves out why Darnold and Jones were gone in the first place. Darnold’s final two games with Minnesota in 2024 undercut his value badly, and even if those games had gone better, the Vikings were not going to hand him a multi-year deal when McCarthy was the clear priority at quarterback. Darnold ended up with the Seattle Seahawks, and that move worked out for him, all the way to a fresh Super Bowl ring.
Jones’ exit was different, but the result was the same. Minnesota wanted to keep him with McCarthy, but Jones saw a chance to start with the Indianapolis Colts and took it.
That’s the same kind of opening that brought Murray to Minnesota this offseason. The only real wrinkle is that Jones’ 2025 campaign ended early because of a torn Achilles, even though things were going well before that.
So saying the Vikings “let” Darnold or Jones leave doesn’t really fit the facts. Both quarterbacks left for better-looking opportunities that were largely outside Minnesota’s control.
If there’s a real offseason mistake to point to, it’s how heavily the Vikings bet on McCarthy. The departures of Darnold and Jones did not force Minnesota to wait until Day 3 of the draft to go after a more dependable No.
- There were veteran backup options available in March, and the Vikings passed on them.
Sam Howell never gave them anything, which is why Carson Wentz had to be signed late last preseason.
With a year-plus of hindsight, it’s easy to look back and say the Vikings should have handled the quarterback room differently. There’s blame to go around for how messy the situation became, even if Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has often been the one left to absorb it.
But Gruden’s idea that Minnesota somehow got what it deserved because Darnold and Jones left goes too far. It strips away the context around both departures and adds a little extra bite to a quarterback situation that already has enough of its own.
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