Sam Darnold embraces the awkwardness of J.J. McCarthy in Vikings OTAs

It has been a wild ride for Sam Darnold since he left USC. He went from a can't-miss prospect coming out in 2018, to a guy who is down to his last chance to ever be a starter in 2024. Darnold bombed with the New York Jets before floundering with the Carolina Panthers. He spent last season backing up Brock Purdy on the San Francisco 49ers. Now, Darnold will start games for the Minnesota Vikings.

Of course, that is only until No. 10 overall pick J.J. McCarthy is ready to take over the offense from him. McCarthy has a well-thought-out development plan put together by the Vikings brass. He will initially be the team's third-stringer behind Darnold and another veteran journeyman in Nick Mullens. In time, McCarthy will do enough to get the nod as the starter from his head coach Kevin O'Connell.

As the well-respected veteran that he is, Darnold talked about this opportunity to the Star Tribune.

"It's just how it goes, right? There's a lot of businesses where you can be in your business for 30-40 years, and the NFL, I think the average is like 3-4 years. It's a little bit different. Going into my seventh year now, even though I still am young, I do feel like a vet and just being able to help guys — not only J.J., but help any young guys in the locker room that need anything, I'm always happy to help."

Even though his NFL career has not worked out like he had hoped it would, I am sure Darnold will be a good teammate and provide the necessary stabilizing presence to McCarthy he wish he had in New York. Everything should be in McCarthy's favor to succeed in Minnesota. If it doesn't work out for him, it will be hard to justify taking him inside the top 10 when he did not throw a ton while at Michigan.

For now, Darnold is going to power through the awkwardness because he has some games to win.

Sam Darnold powering through awkwardness as Minnesota Vikings QB

Give Darnold a lot of credit. He knows exactly what he is getting into. After nosediving with the Jets, starts have been few and far between for him. While he did get some run in Charlotte, draft classmate Baker Mayfield proved to be the better player. This was further proven by his brief tenure with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022 and then his tremendous first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last fall.

The hope is playing for someone like O'Connell will parlay into something potentially good for Darnold down the road, beyond even Minneapolis, really. We all know that the Vikings' starting quarterback job belongs to McCarthy eventually. However, that does not mean Darnold cannot have success in his current role. This could propel him back into the conversations of being a serious stop-gap starter.

Ultimately, Darnold seems to be in the right head space for this new opportunity, and that is all that matters. Spending last year in San Francisco as Purdy's backup working with Kyle Shanahan seems to have helped him out a ton. Of course, we have yet to see Darnold start a game in Vikings purple. The idea of him has always been better than the real things. Let's hope that he is done seeing ghosts.

All it may take for McCarthy to take over is another awful across-his-body interception from Darnold.