Aaron Rodgers to the Minnesota Vikings has been the story of free agency this year. National media has been driving the train with the conductor being The Athletic’s Dianna Russini.
She has been at the forefront of the discussion and reporting over the last few weeks, giving updates on the latest regarding the situation. She’s been steadfast the entire time that Rodgers would be signing with the Vikings, continuing after the report from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero that the Vikings would not be pursuing Rodgers at this time.
National reporting on Vikings QB situation remains baffling
The latest instance of reporting from Russini comes from her Scoop City podcast, breaking down the Vikings’ choice to pick McCarthy over Rodgers.
“In the end, the Minnesota Vikings made a decision to move on from that conversation for now. And what this does, and what this tells you, is that the Vikings have confidence and belief in where JJ McCarthy is at. They moved on from Sam Darnold. That’s a choice. They moved on from Daniel Jones. That’s a choice. They moved on from a future Hall of Fame quarterback and Aaron Rodgers, that’s a choice. So that tells me that Kevin O’Connell has hitched his wagon to JJ McCarthy without ever taking a snap in an actual football game. They must feel confident that he can do the job. They must believe that he is the one.”
You caught them, Dianna. The Vikings have a real belief that the quarterback they moved up to 10th overall for. Shocking, I know. However, Russini doubled down on that on the same podcast.
“Statistically, it’s probably going to be a long shot to win in the playoffs. Kevin O’Connell has never won a playoff game despite the fact that he’s had so much success with all these different quarterbacks, and he’s certainly the quarterback whisperer here, no doubt. I don’t think anyone is challenging his ability and credibility around the league. He is a top head coach in football, but in a win-now League, in a dog-eat-dog environment, here you are making a very bold choice. Here you are tethered to JJ McCarthy now if you are not bringing Aaron Rogers in.”
In a win-now league? Russini is acting like O’Connell didn’t just get a contract extension after starting his head coaching career 34-17 over the first three seasons. Now, he is 0-2 in the playoffs, but those teams weren’t expected to be very good and their biggest weaknesses were massively exposed in the playoffs.
The 2025 team has fortified its weaknesses tenfold and will be in a great position to make a move. What doesn’t make sense is the framing of being tethered to McCarthy now “because they didn’t sign Rodgers.” They already were tethered to him when they traded up into the top 10 for McCarthy. They believe in his ability to be the guy for the Vikings long-term.
This isn’t some bold choice they are making now. It’s been in the works for nearly two years since the Vikings started going in-depth on scouting the 2024 quarterback class. The bold choice was moving on from Kirk Cousins and taking a $28.5 million dead cap hit to do so. They did and it’s paid major dividends for them.
Anytime you give the ball to a quarterback who has never made an NFL start there will be some sort of risk. Even so, we aren’t talking about a reckless decision here. The Vikings have been calculating this for a long time and the strength of the roster provides an elite infrastructure for his success.
Make no mistake, this isn’t a bold choice. It was the plan all along.
