Minnesota Vikings News and Links: Decisions, Decisions

NFL Insider weighs in on Vikings decision between Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy

The discussion about the Minnesota Vikings’ future at quarterback is going to get redundant and nauseating. It was like that last year with Kirk Cousins. Fans and analysts were relentless in discussing the quarterback situation.

That hasn’t changed much over the course of the last month. The discussion surrounding Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy has been relentless and consistent.

We will continue to hear multiple perspectives on the Vikings’ quarterback decision, one that likely hasn’t been made yet. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has always been the type of general manager to make decisions based on the best available data, which means waiting for potential contract negotiations.

On Friday afternoon, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport commented on the situation, raising more questions than answers.

“This actually a little bit, goes back to where the Vikings were last year. We’ll see what they end up deciding, but where the Vikings were last year, which is, we have a quarterback who’s going to get a big salary. We have a quarterback who’s going to earn a big salary. What kind of team can you put around him? And if you pay Darnold what he’s worth, which, based on the season he had, you know, was a comeback player of the year candidate, somehow had a really good season. It’s going to command big dollars. Can they build around the offensive line, defensive line like they need, or do they say J.J. McCarthy, we have seen enough where he is just our franchise quarterback, and we’re moving on from there,? All options on the table, is my understanding of where the Minnesota Vikings stand.”

Minnesota Vikings’ free agency wish list includes o-line, cornerback, running back

Sam Darnold’s pocket movement is considerably better than Kirk Cousins’. Darnold helped mitigate leaky protection in the regular season. But in their playoff loss to the Rams, the constant pressure on Darnold reminded fans that a middling line can be a fatal flaw. Interior pressure has hurt them for what feels like forever. According to Fantasy Pros, Darnold was hurried 52 times, tied for the fourth most in the league. He was only blitzed the 16th most in the league. Stats never tell the whole story, but that discrepancy, along with the eye test, is enough.

Top 5 interior offensive line options for Vikings early in 2025 NFL draft

Tyler Booker, Alabama

Armand Membou, Missouri

Membou is one of several prospects who played tackle in college but probably fits better at guard in the NFL. At 6’3”, 314, he has the arm length and skill set to remain at tackle, but NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah believes he “has the tools to become an All-Pro guard,” comparing him to 2021 first-round pick Alijah Vera-Tucker. Membou is a big-time athlete who was one of the highest-graded tackles in the country last season. Like Booker, he turns 21 shortly before the draft.

Grey Zabel, North Dakota State

Donovan Jackson, Ohio State

Jonah Savaiinaea, Arizona

Savaiinaea started his college career at right guard, then mostly played on the outside over the past two seasons. He was back to working at guard at the Senior Bowl, impressing with his violent hands and powerful anchor. He’s 6’5”, 336, and has plenty of arm length. Savaiinaea is a beast of a lineman who helped himself out last week in Mobile and could be a good fit for the Vikings if they trade down into the second round.

Former Vikings GM Rick Spielman Returning to NFL

Rick Spielman, the Minnesota Vikings GM from 2012 to 2022, was hired by the Jets on Thursday to be their senior football adviser. This comes on the heels of New York hiring a new head coach and GM last month, which Spielman helped make happen.

The #Jets are hiring former #Vikings GM Rick Spielman as a senior advisor in their front office.

Spielman was part of the @The33rdTeamFB search committee that helped find HC Aaron Glenn and GM Darren Mougey—and now he’s joining the organization as well. pic.twitter.com/37yjn8VPza

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 6, 2025

In his role, Spielman will mostly be working remotely as a sounding board for the new regime. On his podcast “With the First Pick,” Spielman explained that Glenn and Mougey will obviously have the final decision when it comes to transactions. He will just be there to assist the relatively inexperienced front office.

Last offseason, Spielman helped lead a similar head coach/GM search for the Washington Commanders. That seemed to work well, as they ultimately landed on Adam Peters as GM, who drafted franchise quarterback Jayden Daniels. They paired him with head coach Dan Quinn, who led them to their first NFC Championship Game since 1992.

Kevin O’Connell says no ‘decisions’ made on Sam Darnold, Vikings QBs for ‘25: ‘It’s a constant dialogue’

O’Connell isn’t looking at his plethora of QB options as an issue over which to be stressed.

“You don’t want to call them problems. They are good things to have as an organization,” O’Connell said Friday on GMFB: OT. “When you have quarterbacks that have played well enough that, yes, of course you’d love to have all your guys back. You’d love to have those guys back every single year, but they’ve played so well in our system, in our organization that they may want to be a quarterback for another team in this league. More importantly, other teams in this league might have seen the way they played and said we want a chance to have that guy.

“So that’s what this time of year is. It’s a constant dialogue, we have great dialogue with our players, and we’re just going to try to find a way to build the best possible team in 2025 that we can. We’ve got to be able to finish better. We want to be one of the teams playing in this game one day, and to do that, there’s going to be year-in-and-year-out hard decisions that get made.

“None of those decisions have been made at this point.”

Vikings’ True Feelings on Daniel Jones Revealed

“I have a lot of confidence that Daniel could have a ton of success in our offense,” O’Connell said Feb. 7 on Pro Football Talk. “I can’t tell you how many times Justin [Jefferson] or Jordan [Addison] or one of these guys at a practice would say ‘that was an unbelievable throw. This guy can really throw it.’ “

Complete NFL 2025 Offseason Trade Guide for Every NFL Team

Hypothetical Trade We’d Love to See: 2025 third-round pick (No. 97 overall) and 2025 fifth-round pick (No. 161 overall) for DL DeForest Buckner, 2025 fifth-round pick (No. 152) and 2025 sixth-round pick (No. 191 overall)

100%

An Off Season Plan before the mock

Starting Cap Space

2025: $58,012,543

2026: $101,508,844

.

Franchise tag Sam Darnold and trade him to Raiders for pick #68, #178, and a conditional 2026 4th or 5th

Cut Ed Ingram : saves 3.325M in 2025 cap space

Extend Andrew Van Ginkel 1 yr 19M

Extend Josh Oliver 2 yr 16M

Extend Dalton Risner 2 yr 8M

Extend Daniel Jones 1 yr 15M

Extend Theo Jackson 1 yr 3.185M (Right Of First Refusal tag)

.

Sign Charvarius Ward CB 3 yr 48M

Sign S Julian Blackmon – 3 yr 24M

Sign DT Teair Tart 2 yr 10M

Sign RB Najee Harris 3 yr 33M

.

Ending Cap Space

2025: $28,132,543

2026: $36,302,844

With the amount of cap remaining, the Vikings could and should be players in the cut candidate market.

This does not add a free agent guard besides Risner because I do not believe the top ones will make it to the market and if they do, the price is going to be too high. Jonah Jackson’s deal is one example of buyer beware although he could rebound this year.

Also, I want to see if a player like Joe Thuney gets cut or is available via trade.

I am sticking with the Raiders trade because it seems fair and they are a strong candidate to try to sign him in free agency. This way they avoid the bidding war. As if.

Yore Mock

Trades

Trade Partner: Las Vegas Raiders

Sent: Sam Darnold

Received: Round 3 Pick 4, Round 6 Pick 4, Future Round 4 Pick

…

Trade Partner: Kansas City Chiefs

Sent: Round 1 Pick 24

Received: Round 1 Pick 32, Round 3 Pick 32

…

Trade Partner: Jacksonville Jaguars

Sent: Round 1 Pick 32

Received: Round 2 Pick 4, Round 4 Pick 24

…

Trade Partner: Cleveland Browns

Sent: Round 6 Pick 4

Received: Round 6 Pick 16, Round 7 Pick 24

…

36: R2 P4 C Grey Zabel – North Dakota State 6’6” 305

68: R3 P4 DL Omarr Norman-Lott – Tennessee 6’3” 315

96: R3 P32 S Andrew Mukuba – Texas 6’0” 190

Kentucky v Texas

Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

97: R3 P33 RB TreVeyon Henderson – Ohio State 5’10” 208

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: JAN 20 CFP National Championship – Notre Dame vs Ohio State

Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

125: R4 P24 WR Jack Bech – TCU 6’2” 215

Reese’s Senior Bowl 2025 – Practice

Photo by Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

138: R5 P1 CB Cobee Bryant – Kansas 6’1” 175

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: OCT 26 Kansas at Kansas State

Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

159: R5 P22 TE Oronde Gadsden II – Syracuse 6’5” 236

Syracuse v Washington State – DirecTV Holiday Bowl

Photo by Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

191: R6 P16 G Connor Colby – Iowa 6’6” 310

Iowa v Maryland

Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images

236: R7 P21 EDGE Sai’vion Jones – LSU 6’6” 280

Vanderbilt v LSU

Photo by Ella Hall/LSU/University Images via Getty Images

239: R7 P24 DL Eric Gregory – Arkansas 6’4” 320

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: OCT 08 Arkansas at Mississippi State

Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

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