Bill Belichick can't help but take shot at Jets during Sam Darnold analysis

The Minnesota Vikings are 3-0 and perhaps the most impressive NFL team to date. It's easy to overreact this early in the campaign, but Minnesota has compelling victories over the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans, two teams widely touted as potential conference champs.

A ton of credit goes to the Vikings defense, which shut the water off on C.J. Stroud for most of Sunday's bout. Naturally, however, the attention has skewed heavily toward the offense. Kevin O'Connell remains one of the brightest play-calling minds in the NFL and his new quarterback has exceeded even the most optimistic of expectations.

We all knew the Vikings' offense was good enough to support an average quarterback. Sam Darnold looks well above average, though. He has completed 67.9 percent of his passes to date, accumulating 657 yards, eight touchdowns, and two interceptions. A former No. 3 overall pick back in 2018, Darnold has always had the talent — the robust physical tools, live arm, and major confidence. What he lacked at previous stops was stable decision-making and, perhaps, a little bit of patience.

Darnold was selected third overall by the New York Jets, who basically gave him three years before turning over the reins to another elite quarterback prospect in Zach Wilson (L — O — L). Despite plenty of flashes, Darnold never quite figured things out in New York. There is blame to go around, but short story short, Darnold posted double-digit INTs in each of his Jets campaigns. He only played more games (12) than interceptions (11) once, in his third and final season with New York.

That prompted a trade, which sent Darnold on his long, twisty journey to this moment. He made stops in Carolina and San Francisco, where Darnold was constantly praised, even in light of on-field stumbles. Bill Belichick, freed from the shackles of coaching in the NFL, couldn't help but notice a trend. Or perhaps more accurately, a trend-breaker.

Bill Belichick flames Jets for mishandling of Sam Darnold amid red-hot Vikings start

"I'll say this, everybody has liked Darnold except the Jets," Belichick said on The Pat McAfee Show. "The people in Carolina that I talked to, they really liked him. ... I know that Kevin O'Connell and some of the coaches in Minnesota, they really like this guy too. So it seems like the only people who didn't like Darnold were at the Jets."

That's a fairly pointed bit of criticism from Belichick, who surely doesn't have an axe to grind against his former division rival. Belichick spent literal decades embarrassing the Jets, so it's should come as no real surprise that he has inside knowledge on New York's rampant incompetence. Until Aaron Rodgers arrived this season, the Jets were perhaps the more directionless franchise in football.

It's safe to say that investing in Zach Wilson over Darnold was a mistake by the Jets. Perhaps Darnold just needed a fresh start (or several fresh starts) to reach his current level, but the 27-year-old is making it abundantly clear that talent was never the issue. It was a circumstantial problem, no doubt related to the Jets' persistent failures on the coaching and personnel front.

Who isn't rooting for Darnold at this point, aside from your standard NFC North foes and, of course, the Jets? He was on the brink of falling out of the league a couple years ago. Now, after what appears to have been a season of understudy work with the 49ers, Darnold is born anew as the Vikings' star quarterback. There is a lot of excitement about what J.J. McCarthy might turn into, but if Darnold keeps this up, Minnesota won't want to change quarterbacks in 2025.

Meanwhile, this new version of Belichick that actually talks to the media and roasts folks over an open flame on TV? It's something.