NFL general managers are often so busy looking for the next shiny thing they wind up being blinded.
Take the Minnesota Vikings, who gave up a third-round pick in next year’s NFL draft to acquire Kirk Cousins
on Tuesday, Nov. 10. Make that re-acquire Cousins, whose departure in the spring of 2024 gave the Vikings a quarterback they were too dumb to hang onto, which led to their current predicament and Cousins’ return.Had Minnesota shown a little more faith in Sam Darnold in 2025, all this nonsense might have been avoided. And the Vikings wouldn’t be at risk of squandering a Super Bowl-caliber defense.
Sam Darnold not great as NFL starter, but good enough
I get that Darnold is no Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Patrick Mahomes. His tendency for coughing up picks and fumbles is problematic, and he takes
almost as many sacks as a tackling dummy.
But he thrived in Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell’s system. In case you’ve forgotten, Darnold had career highs in completions (361), yards passing (4,319) and QB rating (102.5) in his one year with the Vikings. He threw a career-high 35 touchdowns to 12 interceptions.
Yes, he was abysmal in Minnesota’s loss to Detroit in the regular-season finale. And equally bad in the NFC wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The Vikings also knew they had J.J. McCarthy, their No. 1 pick in the 2024 Draft, returning after he’d missed his entire first year with a knee injury.
But the cardinal rule of the NFL is you do not give away good quarterbacks. You hang onto them as if they’re the most precious commodity in the world. Because they are. It doesn’t matter how good your defense is. If you don’t have a quarterback who is at least serviceable, you have no shot at a deep playoff run, let alone the Super Bowl.
As the Vikings saw in their debacle of a loss to the Buffalo Bills on Monday, Nov. 9.
Loss to Buffalo Bills squarely on Vikings offense
Minnesota’s D kept the offense in the game until the fourth quarter. It forced the Bills to go three-and-out on three of their first five possessions. The other two ended with a Josh Allen interception and James Cook getting stuffed on a third-and-2 in the red zone, forcing the Bills to settle for a field goal.
Had Carson Wentz managed to just be competent, Minnesota had a chance to win this game.
Alas …
The Vikings were in the red zone once, at the very end of the night when the game was already lost, and turned it over on downs. They were inside the Buffalo 30 only one other time, coming away with a field goal.
The 23-6 loss, their second in a row, dropped the Vikings from first to third in the NFC North. They’re ahead of the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card standings, but we’ll see if that’s still the case after this weekend.
Do I know Darnold would have done better if he was still with the Vikings? No. But he couldn’t have done much worse! Which is pretty much the story of these last two years in Minnesota.
QB becomes black hole in Minnesota
While Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks were winning Super Bowl 60 last season, McCarthy was being outplayed by Carson Wentz and the Vikings were scuffling to a 9-8 record and missing the playoffs. The Vikings had so much faith in McCarthy they brought in Kyler Murray in the offseason and shipped their former first-rounder off as soon as they could get a draft pick for him.
This season, the Vikings have been winning in spite of their offense, with both Murray and Wentz struggling. Murray has also been injury prone, missing the better of three of the first eight games (concussion, hamstring).
Darnold is having his own challenges in Seattle this season, throwing almost as many interceptions (nine) as he has touchdowns (10). He’s already been ruled out for this weekend, the second consecutive game and third this season that he’s missed.
But the point remains: Darnold played well in Minnesota, well enough to earn more than a one-year deal. But the Vikings were willing to let him go for the promise of someone else. It was a bad move then, and it's only looked worse since then.
Minnesota has a defense that can win a Super Bowl. But its quarterback choices might keep them from getting anywhere close.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vikings’ Sam Darnold mistake keeps looking worse. Kirk Cousins trade proves it | Opinion
