Life as a Green Bay Packers fan? Not too shabby.
No, they haven’t hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in 15 years, but let’s not pretend they’ve been wandering in the wilderness. Twelve winning seasons.
Twelve playoff appearances. That’s the kind of consistency most franchises dream about.
And the quarterback lineage? From Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love - that’s a transition most teams can’t even fake on Madden.
Meanwhile, just across the NFC North divide, the Minnesota Vikings are knee-deep in quarterback uncertainty once again. After rolling the dice on J.J.
McCarthy, Year 2 didn’t exactly deliver the breakout performance Minnesota was hoping for. The 23-year-old looked overwhelmed more often than not, and the decision to let Sam Darnold walk last offseason is aging about as well as unrefrigerated dairy.
Now, with Darnold flashing a Super Bowl ring and McCarthy still trying to find his footing, the Vikings are staring down one of the more bizarre quarterback crossroads in recent memory. Think Philip Rivers showing up in Colts blue - that level of unexpected. And yes, there’s already buzz about a potential Derek Carr unretirement, with Minnesota being floated as a possible landing spot.
You can practically hear the laughter echoing from Lambeau.
Derek Carr to the Vikings? It’s almost too on-brand.
Let’s be clear: Derek Carr isn’t a bad quarterback. Far from it.
But if Minnesota does go down that road, it would feel like the most Vikings move ever. We’re talking Kirk Cousins 2.0 - a veteran QB who can raise the floor, but not necessarily the ceiling.
Carr’s résumé includes just one playoff appearance in 11 seasons, a 26-19 Wild Card loss to the Bengals back in 2022. Sound familiar?
Cousins, for all his regular-season production, owns a 1-4 playoff record.
That’s the dilemma. Carr might stabilize things - he’s accurate, experienced, and knows how to run an offense - but is he the guy who gets you over the hump? Or is he just another chapter in the Vikings’ long-running saga of “almost but not quite”?
Still, Vikings fans will talk themselves into it. Because after watching McCarthy struggle, anything that resembles competence under center feels like an upgrade.
And yeah, looking back, re-signing Darnold might’ve saved them a whole lot of trouble. Hindsight, meet frustration.
Even local voices are starting to throw Carr’s name into the mix. There’s a growing sentiment that Minnesota should leave no stone unturned in its offseason quarterback search - and Carr, retired or not, is now one of those stones worth flipping over.
The irony? Carr probably would make the Vikings more competitive right away.
But “more competitive” doesn’t equal “contender.” Packers fans have seen this movie before.
Different quarterback, same ending. And if Carr doesn’t pan out?
Maybe the Vikings can give Philip Rivers a ring after all.
In the meantime, over in Green Bay, Jordan Love keeps developing, the roster stays solid, and the Packers continue to look like a team with a plan. The Vikings? They're still trying to figure out which direction to go - and who’s going to lead them there.