After it became clear the Minnesota Vikings weren’t going to retain quarterback Sam Darnold, their hope was to re-sign Daniel Jones, who joined their practice squad during the 2024 season following his release from the New York Giants.
The idea was to pair Jones with J.J. McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Jones would have an opportunity to compete with McCarthy for the starting role and revive his career, McCarthy would have to earn the starting spot if he was going to take the reins under center and the Vikings were guaranteed a viable insurance option.
That’s exactly what the Vikings thought was going to happen, until they started to “sense right at the end” that Jones wasn’t as sure as they were about the situation. That led to a prompt change in strategy, and Jones instead eventually signed a contract with the Indianapolis Colts, where he would also have an opportunity to compete for a starting job.
“It sounded like the Vikings thought that Jones was coming back, but then they just got the sense right at the end that he was really not convicted about coming back to Minnesota, ended up taking a little bit less in terms of guaranteed money from the Colts to end up in Indianapolis,” NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said in an episode of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast released on Wednesday. “When you’re Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, you’ve basically formed this system and environment in which any quarterback coming in has played well, and so we think we can do different things.
‘If you don’t want to be here, we’re not going to hold you,’ so they pulled the offer to … Jones, and he goes to the Colts.”
That led to a period of uncertainty in the quarterback room as the Vikings still needed to find a backup to McCarthy, the presumptive starter. During that time, there were reports of the Vikings being interested in veteran Aaron Rodgers, and one free agent quarterback after another signed to teams not based in Minnesota. The long-awaited search finally came to an end when the Vikings acquired quarterback Sam Howell from the Seattle Seahawks during the NFL draft on April 26.
It was a saga, but after Darnold landed in Seattle, the back and forth with Jones ended in the Vikings pulling their offer and the rumors of Rodgers, the Vikings appear to have their quarterback room set with McCarthy and Howell at the top.
