There’s Another Mediocre QB Option for the Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are in the midst of another eventful offseason with uncertainty at the critical quarterback position for the second straight year. A year ago, Kirk Cousins departed from the Twin Cities, and Sam Darnold took his place. This time, Darnold is expected to exit the situation unless the front office decides to extend his contract with a sweet raise.
There’s Another Mediocre QB Option for the Vikings
J.J. McCarthy, the tenth overall pick of the 2024 draft, is waiting in the wings. The Vikings just need to commit to him to end all speculation about a potential bridge quarterback or Darnold’s return.
Until then, all bets are off, and numerous QB options will continue to annoy Skol Nation.
McCarthy has been working on coming back from his meniscus injury sustained in August. The recent updates were all good news, but the club still needs insurance in case he isn’t ready for training camp and Week 1 for medical or developmental reasons.
The options are endless, with veterans filling the free agency pool. Joe Flacco and Andy Dalton have done quite well in spot-start duty in their recent stints. Aaron Rodgers is coming off a disappointing season and is coming with some character baggage, but he is still a future Hall of Famer and showed flashes of his old self throughout the season. How about a Kirk Cousins comeback after one year in Atlanta?
Cody Benjamin, CBS Sports, suggested a new candidate, throwing Jimmy Garoppolo’s name into the mix.
In his recent article, he suggested Darnold’s return to the Jets, leaving the Vikings’ job open for another veteran. Garoppolo just finished his season with the Los Angeles Rams, where he had a front-row seat to Minnesota’s postseason loss.
Benjamin wrote: “At 33, Garoppolo is older and less explosive than Sam Darnold, the Vikings’ 2024 starter. He’s also likely to come much cheaper, and he played on some big stages under general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah with the San Francisco 49ers. He could be another placeholder until young J.J. McCarthy is ready.”
Entering the league as a second-round pick out of Eastern Illinois in 2014, Garoppolo spent the first years of his career watching Tom Brady do his magic. He then was traded to the 49ers, where he agreed to a lucrative contract extension.
In 2019, he quarterbacked the 49ers in the Super Bowl against Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs. The 49ers then attempted to replace him by trading the farm for Trey Lance in the 2020 draft, but it mostly remained Garoppolo’s job until Brock Purdy’s emergence in the 2022 campaign.
In the 2023 offseason, he signed with the Raiders, where he had a catastrophic season, throwing for seven touchdowns and nine interceptions in six starts. Las Vegas benched him for underwhelming candidates and moved on after only one season. With the Rams, Garoppolo started the Week 18 contest and threw a pair of touchdowns.
Throughout his career, Garoppolo started 64 games, throwing for 15,828 yards and 96 touchdowns along the way.
The advantages are easy to find. He knows the type of offense the Vikings run after spending the majority of his career with Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, he is cheap, and he likely won’t be a headache if he’s sitting on the bench behind McCarthy. In addition to that, he has the experience to operate an offense without making it look like a total train wreck.
However, there’s a reason why his last two employers wanted to replace him, and he couldn’t find a starting job elsewhere. Garoppolo is an immobile quarterback and he doesn’t have the arm (or the mentality) to push the ball down the field to feed Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.
Hiring him would be widely unimpressive. Older signal-callers Dalton and Flacco have won games in recent memory, and younger guys like Justin Fields, Zach Wilson, and Daniel Jones have at least some semblance of intriguing physical tools, which is what made Darnold a fascinating personality last year. There was some hidden potential, but with the 33-year-old Garoppolo, there isn’t.
Minnesota’s QBs will be one of the areas to watch in the next two months, but Garoppolo might be the least inspiring option.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt