Why McCarthy-Vikings experiment went south so quickly

greediron wrote:

I didn't want Darnold, at least not for that kind of money. He would have been awful behind our 2025 O-line. So yeah, all those now claiming we should have kept him conveniently forgot how bad he looked those last two games.
And as far as Danny Dimes goes, what has he done? They rode Taylor out to a 6-0 start, traded for Sauce and then folded. Danny got hurt somewhere in there, but he was part of the collapse and the 1-2 start.

I'll just say this. If you had Darnold on this team right now a lot of people would be pretty damn excited!

I was ok with letting him go also, but I was wrong!

hogjowlsjohnny wrote:

I'll just say this. If you had Darnold on this team right now a lot of people would be pretty damn excited!
I was ok with letting him go also, but I was wrong!

But that would have meant you had him last year. And I doubt anyone would have been excited.

Montana Tom wrote:

I said it on draft day two years ago and I'll say it again. We shoulda taken Bo Nix.
He was there, he had many years as a starter in a passing offense (including setting an NCAA record for completion percentage his last season at Oregon). And he already took the Broncos to one playoff.
That's all you need to know, especially now with 20/20 hindsight.

No thanks. Bo Nix is not a good QB. He's fortunate falling to Payton, as if he went anywhere else, he wouldn't be starting anymore. His first season's first 7 games were the worst I've ever seen any QB play. Most of you get up in arms with McCarthy's throwing, yet Bo couldn't hit the broadside of the barn at the time. He's developed into what Sean wanted and is serviceable and a competitor, but I wouldn't want him leading my team.

greediron wrote:

But that would have meant you had him last year. And I doubt anyone would have been excited.

No doubt about that. Skule and company would have him back to the old Darnold. Darnold isn't the greatest QB, but he's pretty darn good and is a franchise QB.

Montana Tom wrote:

I said it on draft day two years ago and I'll say it again. We shoulda taken Bo Nix.
He was there, he had many years as a starter in a passing offense (including setting an NCAA record for completion percentage his last season at Oregon). And he already took the Broncos to one playoff.
That's all you need to know, especially now with 20/20 hindsight.

In Nix case I read all the breakdowns from different draft sites on his game. Most every draft site had him rated last in the among top 6 2024 QB draft class.

My high school is a feeder school of Oregon Ducks football. CC has sent 30? players on scholarship to play there in the last 10 years.

Guys that I played with in Pop Warner and against in HS are alumini and tied into the program .

Every one of them said Nix would succeed in the NFL

I'm no insider, just a fan who was confused because what I read completely contradicted what I was being told.

Nix has gotten Broncos to playoffs twice, and if he didn't break his ankle they would've gone to the Superbowl.

Almost 3 years into it and looking at Nix's stats, draft prognosticators got it wrong.

Mattyman wrote:

In Nix case I read all the breakdowns from different draft sites on his game. Most every draft site had him rated last in the among top 6 2024 QB draft class.
My high school is a feeder school of Oregon Ducks football. CC has sent 30? players on scholarship to play there in the last 10 years.
Guys that I played with in Pop Warner and against in HS are alumini and tied into the program .
Every one of them said Nix would succeed in the NFL
I'm no insider, just a fan who was confused because what I read completely contradicted what I was being told.
Nix has gotten Broncos to playoffs twice, and if he didn't break his ankle they would've gone to the Superbowl.
Almost 3 years into it and looking at Nix's stats, draft prognosticators got it wrong.
Case in point, none of them saw Indiana winning the national championship last year.

That's interesting insight.

Simply because Nix fell to Sean Payton. I'm not so sure he would still be starting in many other systems. Payton was able to work within his skillset and allow him to spread his wings as opposed to being so freaking rigid like other coaches may be. If Nix comes to MN, there is no way makes it through his first season after what he looked like in those first 6-7 games.

I see nothing here that supports the trade. I see irrational expectations and irrational decision making. He’s young, that comes with certain realities. It’s their job to handle that and they are paid a boatload to do so.

This pervasive belief of “win now” is as simple as drafting a guy high and that’s that is self destructive. It’s exceptionally rare this is how real life goes. In the real world, it takes years for NFL QB’s to develop into a championship level QB. The only thing Viking brass need to do is look next door. The Packers have always understood this when it came to the QB position. They plan and develop. As they just showed us all, the Vikings do not. The Vikings make stupid knee jerk decisions. They luck into a QB capable of playing long term and don’t even try to keep him - even when they know the guy they drafted is super young, returning from major injury, and needs a lot of time - they don’t do it. They could have extended Sam and developed JJ without any rush. He doesn’t cost anymore than a back up. Even this year, they were lucky to bring a vet in and give them more time. Yet here we are.

If this article is accurate, I have little faith in this teams’s coach or front office. We will not see a championship with them. KOC (the QB whisperer 🤣) has not developed a single QB for this team. Every success has been with a QB developed by another team. I think he could figure it out, but it isn’t happening with the fools the Wilf’s are hiring as GM’s. I had more faith in Kwesi than this new guy. If he was competent, he would continue developing a guy with JJ’s talent. Either it works or it doesn’t, but what are we really talking about here? At worst you don’t get a late draft pick.

It’s stupid.

IceRatz16 wrote:

That's interesting insight.

Simply because Nix fell to Sean Payton. I'm not so sure he would still be starting in many other systems. Payton was able to work within his skillset and allow him to spread his wings as opposed to being so freaking rigid like other coaches may be. If Nix comes to MN, there is no way makes it through his first season after what he looked like in those first 6-7 games.

Nix would have been just fine here. Probably even better with so many indoor games. He was an easy pick - not all world, but definitely good enough. If he had had a year to sit behind Sam - even better. He was by far the superior pick, not necessarily due to talent, but due to experience. JJ has a lot of talent and will succeed if he lands in a decent situation, but Nix was a super easy pick - which is exactly what I told everyone at the time.

Havoc wrote:

Nix would have been just fine here. Probably even better with so many indoor games. He was an easy pick - not all world, but definitely good enough. If he had had a year to sit behind Sam - even better. He was by far the superior pick, not necessarily due to talent, but due to experience. JJ has a lot of talent and will succeed if he lands in a decent situation, but Nix was a super easy pick - which is exactly what I told everyone at the time.

I disagree, the passing concepts KOC runs are not a fit for Nix. He doesn't have the arm or accuracy downfield to take advantage of those routes. His average depth of throw in college was under 7 yards which was like 4th lowest of all the QBs in the Power 5 conferences. It's the same thing in the NFL, he throws short, short, short and then will occasionally hit an intermediate or deep pass with a lot of misses.

I do agree, I think it was a mistake to move on from JJ McCarthy. Bryce Young is a good recent example of a team benching a high draft pick and then coming back to him. Now he looks pretty good. Much better than he did his first go around. Not sure why the Vikings couldn't do this, but I suspect trading McCarthy had less to do with moving on because we were impatient. I'm guessing he wanted out, he's done some immature things that make you wonder where his head is at, and the team obliged him. Wish it would have worked out different.

I always wish the players well. This ones tough lol, the thought of JJM AND Darnold thriving elsewhere would be hard to take as a fan...

Really hard....

Havoc wrote:

I see nothing here that supports the trade. I see irrational expectations and irrational decision making. He’s young, that comes with certain realities. It’s their job to handle that and they are paid a boatload to do so.
This pervasive belief of “win now” is as simple as drafting a guy high and that’s that is self destructive. It’s exceptionally rare this is how real life goes. In the real world, it takes years for NFL QB’s to develop into a championship level QB. The only thing Viking brass need to do is look next door. The Packers have always understood this when it came to the QB position. They plan and develop. As they just showed us all, the Vikings do not. The Vikings make stupid knee jerk decisions. They luck into a QB capable of playing long term and don’t even try to keep him - even when they know the guy they drafted is super young, returning from major injury, and needs a lot of time - they don’t do it. They could have extended Sam and developed JJ without any rush. He doesn’t cost anymore than a back up. Even this year, they were lucky to bring a vet in and give them more time. Yet here we are.
If this article is accurate, I have little faith in this teams’s coach or front office. We will not see a championship with them. KOC (the QB whisperer 🤣) has not developed a single QB for this team. Every success has been with a QB developed by another team. I think he could figure it out, but it isn’t happening with the fools the Wilf’s are hiring as GM’s. I had more faith in Kwesi than this new guy. If he was competent, he would continue developing a guy with JJ’s talent. Either it works or it doesn’t, but what are we really talking about here? At worst you don’t get a late draft pick.
It’s stupid.

I agree with most of this, except for the part about our new GM. Trading JJM was dumb I agree, but I think that well was poisoned before Teasley ever got here. If KO is done with JJM, is Teasley supposed to demand he makes it work? He could, but that has relationship consequences and Teasley must've deemed JJM wasn't worth the trouble. So he traded him for the best return he could muster I guess. Idk. The situation stinks but of all the people in the building, Teasley's hands are mostly clean here imo.

EDIT- If our offense keeps looking terrible, Wes Phillips and Josh McCown's seats should be on fire by the way.

pattersaur wrote:

I agree with most of this, except for the part about our new GM. Trading JJM was dumb I agree, but I think that well was poisoned before Teasley ever got here. If KO is done with JJM, is Teasley supposed to demand he makes it work? He could, but that has relationship consequences and Teasley must've deemed JJM wasn't worth the trouble. So he traded him for the best return he could muster I guess. Idk. The situation stinks but of all the people in the building, Teasley's hands are mostly clean here imo.
EDIT- If our offense keeps looking terrible, Wes Phillips and Josh McCown's seats should be on fire by the way.

Teasley has the perfect excuse. If they aren't going to pick up the 5th year option, then his words of "Contracts aren't infinite" has merit. They don't have the contract length to wait it out. So, Teasley lets it go.