What does Daniel Jones to Minnesota mean for Vikings, Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy?

EAGAN, Minn. — The smile said it all. Pressed Monday about his interest in signing free agent quarterback Daniel Jones, Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell uttered 10 words — one of the shortest answers he’s ever given at a news conference — and then pursed his lips in an unsuccessful attempt to suppress a growing grin.

“Really not going to get into that at this time,” O’Connell said.

There will be no reason to skip over the topic Wednesday, or moving forward, after the Vikings signed the former New York Giants quarterback to a one-year contract for the remainder of the season. But an updated question remains valid: What exactly was there to smile about?

Jones failed so spectacularly as the Giants’ starter this season that the team decided it was better for the franchise to not only bench him, but to bury him on the depth chart and then waive him, rather than risk an injury that could trigger 2025 guarantees. Since New York drafted him with the No. 6 pick in 2019, Jones ranks 27th out of 39 eligible quarterbacks in QBR.

Get someone who looks at you the way Kevin O’Connell looks at someone when asked if he has interest in signing Daniel Jones. pic.twitter.com/OD0kCGdlnS

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) November 27, 2024

The answer lies in the complicated quarterback matrix the Vikings find themselves in, one that seemed destined to remain dormant until the offseason but will now take a prominent place in public discussion around the team.

Starter Sam Darnold joined Minnesota on a one-year contract during the offseason and has surpassed all expectations in leading the Vikings to a 9-2 record, having already topped his career high in touchdown passes (20), and he could command a hefty free agent contract.

Darnold is 27 and perhaps hitting the prime of his career, and re-signing him would make sense in the abstract. But rookie J.J. McCarthy, the No. 10 pick of the 2024 draft, is the team’s quarterback of the future. Adding a market-level veteran deal for Darnold would negate the roster-building advantage of having a starter on a rookie contract. Plus McCarthy’s performance during training camp suggested he was close to being ready to start even then. At the time, O’Connell said: “I really believe that J.J. has kind of confirmed to me and a lot of our coaches and players that we got the right guy in the building for the future.”

McCarthy is also the only quarterback under contract for the 2025 season, as backups Nick Mullens and Brett Rypien are on expiring deals as well. Even if you assume McCarthy will make a full recovery from surgery to repair the meniscus in his right knee, one that required a second surgery earlier this month to address swelling, the Vikings would need to pair him with a veteran of some kind.

That’s probably the best way to think about Wednesday’s move. It’s pretty unlikely the Vikings will need Jones to play this season, assuming Darnold remains healthy and maintains his level of play. (Vikings fans will remember, however, that the team went through four quarterbacks in 2023. It can happen.)

O’Connell has earned a reputation as one of the NFL’s best quarterback tutors, and his work with Darnold this season should serve as a résumé-defining accomplishment. He spearheaded the team’s transition from Kirk Cousins this spring, ultimately deciding on a combination of Darnold and McCarthy, and he said Monday that he had a strong evaluation of Jones prior to the 2019 draft. That season, O’Connell was Washington’s offensive coordinator and ultimately watched as the Giants selected Jones at No. 6 while Washington drafted Dwayne Haskins at No. 15.

If nothing else, the Vikings get a chance to see Jones close up and work with him months before they will have to make an offseason decision on building the position’s depth around McCarthy.

Jones, meanwhile, will get the benefit of attending one of the NFL’s top quarterback schools before he needs to market himself in free agency. He will start out on the Vikings’ practice squad, so he’ll also have the chance to sign with another team if a starting quarterback goes down in the next three weeks.

Could Jones be the player the Vikings want behind, or beside, McCarthy in 2025? Perhaps. That would put Jones in a similar spot to where Darnold found himself in as the 49ers’ backup in 2023, a move that helped spur his arrival in Minnesota. There’s no harm in finding out earlier rather than later. The one risk, however, is adding another veteran quarterback in the middle of a playoff push, which suggests the team is already thinking about the moment when its current starter moves on.

Darnold has been rock-solid through some ups and downs during his brief Vikings tenure, and he has been careful to avoid public discussion about his past or his future. So Jones’ arrival might not matter much to him, but at the very least, it will require an extra level of management from O’Connell, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown.

Darnold said Wednesday afternoon that the move won’t jostle any long-term thoughts and added: “Right now I’m continuing to focus on what we’re doing and continuing to focus on the task at hand.”

There will be plenty of smiles in Minnesota today — along with a reminder that the future can come faster than you think.