I agree

I get what you're saying but we don't see practice and how these guys work.  The way Kevin O'Connell talks about JJ, he KNOWS...  he flat out said we have our young franchise guy.  Maybe Darnold is our Next Gen Case Keenum.  Right guy, right coach, right team, right time.  Might never plays this well again. Lots of season left.  One thing I'm pretty certain of is JJ will be our starter sooner rather than later.  Just not this year.

This.

Yeah we are getting way ahead of ourselves. But it IS fun to speculate. Love sat for two (three?)years before taking the reins and I don’t recall much blow back from that—except for Erin. I just think the decision about the path forward will become clear when it needs to be. Until then, I’m loving the national praise the Vikes are getting.

I think the team realizes now that McCarthy is way farther ahead of the curve than they thought when they drafted him. People forget Love went to Utah State....JJM won a national championship playing at Michigan. The team, of course, will decide, but all this talk of 'what if Darnold wins the Super Bowl' is kind of hilarious. The team has had fast starts before.

Future scenario thinking...
Should Darnold take us A) To the playoffs, B) Deep in the playoffs...
Fans forget that he is only on a one-year leash.  He'll be a free agent after the season, so the market will dictate his options (and our options) more than us driving that bus.
The only home-town discount he might offer the Vikings to stay another year or two is because of how KOC's tutoring helped him re-invigorate his career.
But in scenario A or B above, the longest extension I see Kwesi offering would be 2 years.  Because after that you DEFINITELY would have your QBOTF primed to step in.
The other challenge in extending Darnold is that he would definitely command a large chunk of that available cap space that we have all been salivating for next year.  Given what Kwesi (and KOC) were able to do this season with what we all assumed was a patchwork quilt of players, maybe that's still a good bet.

The problem with answering questions before they are due to be answered is that you are not dealing with a fully developed question.  Let the scenarios play out and enjoy the ride.  We all know that this can't continue...we're not allowed to have nice things.

Darnold knew the situation when he signed and knows the situation now. It could be weird later if say Minnesota is like a #1 or #2 NFC playoff seed. But here's the difference: the team has been around McCarthy....they've seen him play one preseason game....they've seen him in practice, getting better each day. The team already really likes JJM, he's got some equity. That's important because I know they like Sam as well. If JJM was a completely unknown commodity and hadn't bonded with the team like he already has, it could be a really awkward deal later on with continued success. But that's the great part of this, it won't be. But at the same time, assuming continued success, I'm sure Darnold would prefer to stay a Viking. I do feel badly for him if that happens. Then when he goes, JJM will be compared to Darnold's success. I mean it has some low level potential to get sticky down the road. However, I don't expect it to go down that way.