Is it JJ McCarthy, or is it Sam Darnold? The Vikings‘ QB situation is shaping up to be an interesting storyline this season. Who is going to be the team’s starting QB this year? The young gun with all the potential in the world, JJ. Or Darnold, who put 14 wins in the Vikings’ winning column and had a great regular season run? Well, the NFL is brutal at times. The league sometimes doesn’t care about how elite the numbers you put up are. Rather, it judges on number of Lombardis won or how many Super Bowl runs you’ve made. So, what’s Vikings’ take on this?

Well, Sam has neither of these two. And as he is a free agent now, so, that might lead the Vikings to turn their back on him. Now, Kevin O’Connell‘s team has to decide what to do with Sam Darnold if they are moving ahead with JJ McCarthy. Speaking of JJ, the 22-year-old will now have a new coach as he makes his league debut after a year of being drafted.

The Vikings, like other franchises, are making hires and squad changes in the offseason. In their latest move, they have a new assistant QB coach joining them. Minnesota is hiring Saints’ “Jordan Traylor as their new assistant OC and assistant QBs coach“, as reported by NFL Insider Ian Rapoport. This decision certainly indicates that the Vikes are looking to provide more support to McCarthy, projecting him as their preferred QB.

Jordan will be filling the shoes left by former Vikings OC Grant Udinski. Grant left Minnesota to become the new OC of the Jaguars under their new HC, Liam Coen. Traylor was with the Saints before as their offensive assistant. The 31-year-old also has some scouting experience on his resume. During his initial years with the Saints, Jordan also served as a scouting assistant for the team.

Well, as the Vikings welcome Jordan, Sam’s dilemma continues for the team.

Sam Darnold’s Free Agency Struggles

“…Everybody in our league now thinks he’s a bona fide legitimate starting quarterback and can win a lot of football games…So he’s earned the right to be a free agent.” That’s what HC Kevin O’Connell had to say about Sam Darnold at the Scouting Combine. Kevin has always rooted for Sam, even when everyone else was against him. His regular season performance was the reason Sam had that kind of support from Coach Kevin.

Darnold racked up impressive numbers in the regular season -14 wins, over 4,300 passing yards, and 35 touchdowns. And even back then, when he was spectacular on the gridiron, people were more in favor of bringing McCarthy next season. But now, if the Vikings give him a free agency pass, how ‘ideal’ would that situation be for Sam?

NFL Network’s Judy Battista believes that the free market won’t be rolling out the red carpet for the QB. First of all, teams will consider signing him only after reviewing his last two performances over and over again -both of which the Sam-led Vikings lost.

One was the last game of the regular season against the Lions, where he could only rack up 166 yards with no TDs. And then, in the Wild Card round against the Rams, they couldn’t put more than 9 points on the board. Secondly, Judy Battista notes, “It’s not a great free agent market right now for quarterbacks, especially with Matthew Stafford off the market too.” That’s a critical situation for Darnold.

Being in free agency won’t have anything positive for the 27-year-old. And it will also be interesting to see if the Vikings keep Sam Darnold, then where would that put JJ McCarthy?