Overreaction Monday: Vikings season hinges upon one thing that’s abundantly obvious

The barometer for how good of a season the Minnesota Vikings could have hinges entirely on the right arm of starting quarterback Sam Darnold. On the most recent episode of Stacking the Box, Ian MacMillan touched on what could be in store for the Vikings as a part of unpacking how good the Atlanta Falcons could be. He said that this team will sink or swim based almost entirely on Darnold.

Not going to lie, I am not the biggest fan of Darnold anymore. I said he was never going to bust as an NFL prospect, and he absolutely did. He may have gone to a terribly run franchise out of USC in the New York Jets at the time, but he didn't do much of anything in Carolina, although he looked really good holding a clipboard backing up Brock Purdy in San Francisco last year. I just don't buy into him.

However, I do think there is a chance that Darnold does play well at times in Kevin O'Connell's system. If he does that, then maybe he is back on the team next year, trying to keep J.J. McCarthy at bay from overtaking him on the depth chart. Simply put, the Vikings drafted McCarthy high for him to start one day. Thus, Darnold is not for long in Minnesota to begin with, which will only hurt him here.

Here is the clip of MacMillan unpacking Darnold's importance to the Vikings with Sterling Holmes.

The other big factor working against Darnold is every other team in the NFC North is better than his.

Sam Darnold will decide how good of a year Minnesota Vikings will have

If we were ever hoping to see Darnold play like he did at times during his USC career under Clay Helton, this would be the team and the situation. Minnesota has a slew of offensive weapons in Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson and Justin Jefferson. This has been a playoff-caliber team throughout most of the last decade. However, they downgraded massively at quarterback this year.

I understand the decision to move off Kirk Cousins, but their supposed fail-safe plan already has faults in it. McCarthy was more of a project than a prospect coming out. Now he is hurt. Nick Mullens may be a capable backup, but this team is going nowhere fast if he is tasked with starting multiple games for them in a row. After that, you're looking at two unproven guys in Jaren Hall and Matt Corral.

Ultimately, Darnold has the talent to keep the Vikings in the playoff mix much longer than they should be. Unfortunately, he plays with a certain reckless abandon I always run away from when it comes to starting quarterbacks. Even if I like O'Connell as a coach and Darnold as a person, this team that general manger Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is not quite good enough to make the playoffs in the weak NFC.

I would love to be proven wrong when it comes to Darnold, but will he have the seventh-year leap?