Who to Blame and Lessons Learned from the Vikings' Sam Darnold Disaster

The Vikings let Sam Darnold walk in free agency last March. Less than a year later, he was hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

Feb 8, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) celebrates with the Vince Lombardi trophy on the podium after defeating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The sight of Sam Darnold hoisting the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night will be burned in Vikings' fans' memories for a long, long time. The decision to let Darnold walk could haunt the Vikings until they can finally win the Super Bowl themselves. So, is the Darnold decision the worst move in franchise history? Who is to blame for the disastrous result? And what are the lessons Minnesota learned? Let's dive in...

Is the decision to let Sam Darnold walk the new worst move in franchise history?

Jonathan: It's 1,000-times worse than the Herschall Walker trade. The Walker trade, rightly so, gets tagged as the worst trade/most one-sided trade in sports history. That's fair. However, the reason the Darnold decision is worse is because this was a quarterback. You know, the position this franchise has been desperate to find since Fran Tarkenton retired. I get needing to see what you had in McCarthy, but this is a quarterback that just won you 14 games, the players inside the clubhouse universally loved him, and played the way Kevin O'Connell wants a QB to play. Forget the whole conversation about Minnesota offering him a deal and he chose Seattle; the tag was right there for the Vikings to use, and they chose not to. So much so that, according to The Athletic's Mike Silver, O'Connell gave Seattle's future Hall of Fame general manager John Schneider "glowing" remarks about Darnold. Minnesota didn't just move on from Darnold, they pushed him out the door.

The Walker trade gets looked at as bad, again rightly so, because it set up a Dallas dynasty. It took a couple years for them to win the big one, though. Seattle and Darnold, however, won the Super Bowl the very next season, while Minnesota sat at home already pondering the future of their first-round quarterback. Darnold is also only 28, so he could be contending with Seattle for another 10 years. Meanwhile, Minnesota is clearly getting ready to go down the 'veteran/retread QB' well again because they messed this up.

Joe: A thousand times worse? C'mon, man. That's crazy. Darnold was awesome for the Vikings and the Seahawks, but the Seahawks won the Super Bowl with an incredible defensive effort. Darnold was 19-of-38 passing for 202 yards.

Hindsight is 20:20. Everybody, including me, thought Darnold was overmatched when he was getting obliterated by the Lions and Rams in the final two games last season. He didn't look like a guy who could get the Vikings over the hump. At the same time, the Vikings drafted McCarthy to be their franchise QB. They might be wrong on McCarthy, but they stuck to the plan to build a roster around a quarterback on a rookie contract. It made all the sense in the world until it didn't, and that was after they let Darnold leave.

And by the way, trading Randy Moss for Napoleon Harris and the 7th pick in the 2005 draft, which turned into wide receiver bust Troy Williamson, still ranks higher on my list of the worst moves in Vikings history.

Jonathan: Yes, 1,000-times worse. Quarterbacks don't grow on trees. Running backs and wide receivers do seem to grow on trees. Yes the final two games in Minnesota were bad and yes he didn't need to do too much in the Super Bowl to win it because of Seattle's incredible defense. While not on the same level, the Vikings defense looked pretty dang good down the stretch and certainly could have taken the pressure off of Darnold at times during the season the way the Seahawks' did. We'll never know whether Sam could have had a similar arc in Year 2 in Minnesota that he had in Year 1 in Seattle, which is part of the pain of a day like today. That leads us into the next question...

Oct 20, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) and Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell and fullback C.J. Ham (right) look on before the game against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Where should blame lie for the decision to let Darnold walk?

Jonathan: Since the firing of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, it seems like there has been a hit placed on the now former GM, with people trying to lay all of the blame for the QB disaster at his feet. To me, it's wildly out of place.

Both Kwesi and O'Connell deserve blame here. However, I'm leaning towards O'Connell deserving more of the blame than Adofo-Mensah. O'Connell famously labeled McCarthy the "franchise quarterback" last year following the then-rookie's season-ending injury. After that, it never really mattered what Darnold did on the field. The expectation was put in the fanbase's, organization's, and media's mind that McCarthy had it. Darnold was never allowed to earn the fruits of his labor here in Minnesota. Go back and look at the comment sections and social media reaction to everything in 2024. Anytime Darnold did something well, it was mostly, 'Oh, that's nice, but can't wait to see McCarthy in 2025.' Anytime something went wrong, 'Oh, thank God we have McCarthy in the wings.'

Add to that the glowing comments O'Connell gave to Jon Schneider, along with his comments about Darnold "earning the right to hit free agency," and it would appear the head coach was never really all that invested in Darnold here long term. Kwesi certainly played his part in sticking to the vision of trying to maximize the rookie QB contract, but O'Connell seemingly escaping blame the past couple of weeks has been baffling.

The franchise quarterback line not only made it impossible for Darnold to truly succeed here, but it also put an unfair expectation on McCarthy, who definitely didn't live up to the billing. The QB whisperer tag has disappeared from O'Connell, but I also have to wonder if he actually deserves to have as much say about the next quarterback as he seemingly does with Kwesi now gone.

Joe: If anything, the blame falls on McCarthy's brittle body. No one could've predicted him to tear a meniscus in his first preseason game, and nobody saw a high ankle sprain, concussion, and fractured bone in his hand derailing his first season as the starter.

It was very obvious that Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell agreed that McCarthy was their franchise quarterback. The results may have cost Adofo-Mensah his job and put O'Connell in a hot seat entering the 2026-27 season, but the Vikings stuck to their vision of building a team around McCarthy. If they had re-signed Darnold to a three-year deal, they've wouldn't have had as much spending power last year in free agency, when only the Patriots spent more money, and therefore sacrifices elsewhere on the roster would've been required.

Think of it like this: If they had re-signed Darnold, they may not have been able to afford Will Fries and Ryan Kelly on the offensive line. Do you remember what happened to Darnold when the O-line let him down? He was awful. It's easy to say Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell missed an opportunity to bring him back and protect him better to maximize his superpowers, but they had committed to McCarthy long before Darnold began racking up wins in 2024, and the fact that they didn't budge from their plan is a risk they were willing to take. It backfired, and now all bets are off as to what happens next.

Dec 10, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell (left) and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah react during the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Jonathan: The biggest issue I have with how they handled it was their inability to adjust when another path was presented to them. Having a plan is great, and something this organization seemed to lack in the final years of the Zimmer/Spielman era. However, when a franchise QB was dropped in their laps, they should have found a way to adjust their plans.

All we heard this last offseason was that this roster needed a league average quarterback to compete. Well, they had better than that, and they pushed him out the door in favor of the unknown, because they remained dogmatic to a plan they set out on a couple of years ago. Now they might be asking Kirk Cousins to return. Woof. That leads me to the last question... I'll let you start.

What lesson(s) should the Vikings learn from this situation?

Joe: First and foremost, sign Aaron Rodgers when he wants to play for you. Of everything that's happened, passing on a chance to have Rodgers leading the franchise was the biggest mistake of all. He flat-out said on national TV that he'd play for $10 million.

Darnold was going to cost Minnesota years and big money. Rodgers was available on a one-year deal, which would've allowed McCarthy another year of grooming while giving Minnesota a guy who, according to Aaron Jones, is one of the best locker room leaders in the league.

I found it interesting when Dianna Russini recently said she knows that O'Connell "does not have the final say on roster" decisions. Russini was pushing the Rodgers-to-Minnesota narrative harder than anyone last year, so maybe she believes that O'Connell would've gone with Rodgers if it were his call. If that's the case, then we can go back to the second question and put ALL of the blame on Adofo-Mensah. But, we may never know, so it's all speculation and water cooler conversation for now.

Jonathan: For me, it's along similar lines of what you said, and what I said to finish the last question: be willing to adjust. From Darnold to Rodgers to even Daniel Jones, there were numerous options for the Vikings last season to give McCarthy another year of development by bringing in a real veteran option. They didn't, whether it was their decisions or the quarterback's decisions, and they paid for it, and will have to pay a heavy price this offseason to correct that error.

As for O'Connell not having final say... after he led the prospect research tours ahead of the 2024 draft, called McCarthy a "franchise quarterback," then failed to adjust to McCarthy's strengths and weaknesses until it was far too late in 2025, I'm okay with there being oversight on O'Connell's decision-making. He is firmly in the hot seat for me this upcoming season.

After the Darnold decision bit them, the Vikings absolutely must compete in 2026. Not just get to the playoffs, but they have to win in the playoffs. If they don't, it's time to move on from O'Connell.

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