Losing J.J. McCarthy for season could be a bigger blow than Vikings fans even realize

Although they still have a full season's worth of games to play, the odds are firmly stacked against the Minnesota Vikings this year. Pivoting off Kirk Cousins in favor of Sam Darnold was odd to say the least. While drafting their quarterback of the future in J.J. McCarthy looked smart, his season is over before it even began. All the while, we are gearing up for the worst Vikings season in quite some time.

As a part of Jeff Howe's latest feature for The Athletic, he divulged a bit of inside information on all 32 teams. The bit he had on the Vikings certainly moved the needle. He gathered that many rival coaches and executives believed McCarthy was slated to have the best rookie season of any of the six quarterbacks taken inside the top 12 of the NFL Draft. I don't buy this at all, but I do understand it.

McCarthy was, in my mind, the least pro-ready of any of the first-round quarterbacks taken. Outside of probably Michael Penix Jr. with my Atlanta Falcons, I envision the other four starting more than half of their team's games. Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix and Caleb Williams were sure-fire Week 1 starters, while logic will prevail in New England when it comes to what Drake Maye offers over Jacoby Brissett.

All the while, the Vikings go from a potential steady hand under center to the forever erratic Darnold.

Minnesota Vikings may be sitting on a pile of gold with J.J. McCarthy

As an unbiased observer, I am so incredibly conflicted with this team. Minnesota has been one of the most consistently strong teams in the NFC for the better part of two decades now. All the while, they have pretty much had a revolving door at quarterback throughout my entire life. Snake-bitten to hell, they are forever chasing their next Fran Tarkenton. In due time, that quarterback could be McCarthy.

For as much as I like McCarthy's upside, Kevin O'Connell's coaching chops and the weaponry the offense will have at its disposal in Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson, I can never get past their one big bugaboo. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah might be the worst general manager in football. Everything he has done has torn away at the fabric of what his predecessors all tried to accomplish.

I think if this team goes 4-13 with Darnold, Nick Mullens and now Brett Rypien starting games, then Zygi Wilf needs to hire a new man to lead his front office. The pieces are intriguing at times, but do they fit. For that reason, I continually question every move the Vikings have made outside of the most obvious one of extending Jefferson for the better part of three years now, and I do like McCarty a ton!

Even if McCarthy has the best career of all of the first-round quarterbacks, we won't know until later.