Vikings have to be kicking themselves for letting J.J. McCarthy replacement out the door

The quarterback plan for the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 was abundantly clear. They let Kirk Cousins walk and traded up in the NFL Draft to select J.J. McCarthy to be their future under center. While McCarthy's status for Week 1 of the regular season was always up in the air, the Vikings had Sam Darnold as a bridge for when McCarthy was ready, likely sometime during the 2024 campaign.

Well, Vikings fans are going to have to wait awhile to see their exciting rookie play in a game that counts, as McCarthy suffered a knee injury which is going to end his season before it even began.

While yes, Darnold is healthy and active, the next options in line are Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall. With former Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs getting off to a good start in a new situation with the San Francisco 49ers, the Vikings might be regretting letting him go.

Vikings have to have some regret for letting Joshua Dobbs go following unfortunate J.J. McCarthy injury

Dobbs split time with the Arizona Cardinals and the Vikings last season and had mixed results. He exceeded expectations on a poor Cardinals team and looked quite good in his first three Vikings appearances, but he played so poorly in his two following games to the point where the team benched him for the remainder of the season behind the likes of Mullens and Hall.

He signed a cheap one-year deal with the 49ers to compete for their backup quarterback spot (Darnold's old role) and so far, has played extremely well, throwing for over 100 yards in both of his appearances and doing damage with his legs as well.

While Dobbs might not end up performing better than the likes of Darnold, Mullens, or Hall, adding another quarterback for competition purposes isn't bad. With how well he has played so far, there's a very realistic chance he would've not only beaten out Mullens and Hall for Minnesota's backup job, but he might've even earned the starting nod over Darnold who didn't look great in his preseason debut.

No matter how you slice it, the McCarthy injury is an unfortunate one for Minnesota. Having Dobbs in the mix would not be nearly as exciting as McCarthy, but there's a very real chance that due to McCarthy's injury, he would've made the team. Now that Dobbs is gone, Minnesota's quarterback room might've taken a bigger hit than we might've realized.