Will J.J. McCarthy Be an Upgrade from Sam Darnold in Year 1?

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00:00DRS when it came down to the end of last season game 272 of 272 the stakes could not have been

00:07more monumental the Lions and the Vikings two teams that entered with 14 wins the first time

00:12we had seen two teams with 14 wins at least square off in a regular season game not just

00:19to win a division but that divisional title would have made that team the number one seed

00:23in the NFC the Lions hammered the Vikes Sam Darnold kind of had to see saw the clock strike

00:30midnight he was bad the next week in the playoffs against the Rams kind of solidifying the question

00:36that many were asking in Darnold's resurrected season what are the Vikings going to do with

00:41the quarterback spot well they let Sam Darnold walk in the guy they drafted 10th overall in 2024 JJ

00:48McCarthy was the heir apparent in the future face of the franchise as we anticipated here is what

00:55Sam Darnold did in 2024 under Kevin O'Connell more than 4300 passing yards 35 passing touchdowns here

01:03is the expected production of JJ McCarthy in 2025 36 50 and a half 24 and a half passing touchdowns and

01:12the buyer sell question is JJ McCarthy will be better this year than Sam Darnold was last year

01:20that's pretty easy for me there's no there's there's no question that he can't be as good as Sam Darnold

01:28well Donnie don't say that don't say there was a first round pick to absolutely love this kid here

01:32Sam Darnold had 35 touchdown passes 12 interceptions a pass rating of one of 2.5 and almost 4400

01:37passing yards last year so we're talking about a rookie coming in from Michigan who like he did a

01:44good job he's a leader there's a reason why he has the intangibles and the arm strength and the

01:48athletic ability to be a good quarterback but asking a quarterback just to come off the scrap heap here

01:53of missing an entire season and getting back out there and throwing for let's just say 40 touchdown

01:58passes and 4,500 yards that's not his MO like looking at his Michigan statistics you know the final two

02:04years almost similar 22 touchdown passes in 2022 22 touchdowns in 2023 and that probably includes

02:11what Ben 16 games when it's all said and done and you win a national championship this isn't a guy

02:16that's used to the limelight being like I need to be the center of attention and be the quarterback

02:21he's got a good offensive line he's got a good running game here with Aaron Jones he's got maybe the

02:25best wide receiver in football he's got a lot of things going for him but the one thing he doesn't

02:29have going for him is a lot of live reps in NFL game situations in a tough division in a tough NFC

02:35that he's going to play in we talk about like the baby steps like it's not supposed to be like cam

02:38we're like hey true rookie here handle your first training camp like JJ's been in the building he's

02:43with the same head coach he's been inside that playbook for 12 to 16 months at this point he should

02:47be ready to perform on the field but that's a tall task like just saying the name Sam Darnold it's like

02:52yeah he should be better than Sam Darnold it's Sam Darnold look at the statistics and boy oh boy

02:56would we be having an unbelievable conversation about Sam Darnold this year being in Minnesota

03:02if he just won one of his final two games we wouldn't even be talking JJ McCarthy right now Ben