QB of the future?

Thanks for your takes, agree with you both. Interesting take on JJ possibly being on the bench next year. Seems less than ideal, but if Darnell keeps playing well, and the Vikings could get good compensation, I guess it’s possible.

If you guys were 0-3, in spite of Darnold playing well, instead of 3-0, he might be a dolphin by now.

Ha ha ty guys for having me. That’s mostly the Kensington crowd, but don’t forget throwing car batteries at your players. Most of our base are passionate, maybe a little crude at times, but not truly disruptive.

I agree with your take, makes total sense, thanks.

This conversation continues to go...

Maybe the Love/Rodgers wait. I will let you know later on if we should imo, I can’t believe we 4-0. Situations can change based on results.

If he continues to play well tag him and trade him next off-season. Don't resign him and watch him turn back into a pumpkin and lose value like the Wolves did with KAT.

Buy low, sell high. Unless he's willing to take a very team friendly deal. Then let JJ compete for the job next year, of he wins it you can still trade Sam, if not hopefully Sam proves this season wasn't a fluke.

I appreciate what Darnold is doing and I think it is clear he is better than many thought due to a lack of talent around him in other situations. However, we can't make this same mistake again and overpay for solid game manager type of play but not a QB that is elite. The QB market is way out of whack for everything outside of the very best QB's like Mahomes or even Allen. If you get that level of play, fine pay up for it but if not then you are wasting money that could fix issues elsewhere (the issues you will complain about when your above average QB just isn't enough). We just went through this adding Cousins at a high price because we thought with a NFC championship run and a better QB we would take off. Wouldn't you know that the oline issues we couldn't fix ended up hurting Cousins more than Keenum and the offense the following 5.5 years when he was healthy actually was worse compared to the rest of the league? The defense which was the strength of the team could not stay at that level either. We haven't even fully utilized the cap created in moving on yet with Van Ginkel, Greenard, Cashman and vet CB's this defense is right back to being able to drive success again.

Once we pay Darnold we fall into that exact same issue/trap. Everyone argues over if the QB should be blamed or other areas that are worse because we can't afford the upgrades we need. The reality is that paying a QB who is mostly just going to be a game manager is not the right call. SF made it back to the SB because they moved on from Jimmy G instead of paying up and losing key pieces. Darnold is outplaying a 10 mil contract and that has allowed this team to get where we are today instead of being stuck in that circular nonsense for 6 years. Paying up for him just doesn't make sense if we truly believe in what we did to get Mccarthy. This time we need to keep building up the team with the extra cap and if we hit on the right guy, even if he is a game manager type, we will be better off than just signing Darnold for huge $.

If Darnold or Cousins fans are upset at the comparison, just assume I think your guy is better. You just can't pay up for game managers that are so overly reliant on surrounding situation. That is why Darnold is working out so well, we had the offensive support already and used the rest of that cap to build up the defense. Limit the situation around him due to cap constraints and the issues start to glare a bit more, just like what happened with Cousins. This is why it was crazy to think that the fall off of the organization would be huge just because we moved on from what some considered a top 10 type QB. The reality is the last 6 years have been a pretty poor stretch for the Vikings with 1 playoff win and even though the QB wasn't the main issue, the inability to support him was a massive impact that came from his own contract. We already went out and found our cheap QB on a rookie contract to go all in around and the support around him is better than expected it appears. We need to add interior oline, CB's and a DT next offseason, not pay too much for a solid QB just because it feels like we might be close. The goal is to go above and beyond just getting close to a great team and even if it is a risk moving on, it is better than getting stuck in that cycle all over again and watching things deteroirate.

I wish Darnold the best but unless it's at a similar salary, I hope he is not Minnesota next year. He has earned much more than that with a longer term situation if his play keeps up. This team needs to stick with the original plan and go all in on surrounding a cheap QB contract with elite talent all over. Fill in the other gaps and trust we got what we think in JJ Mccarthy. He might not be as good as Darnold but if he is (or even better) we now are in an even better spot in terms of truly competing for a SB. That's a better risk to me than going back into the cycle just described.