The Minnesota Vikings have found their new quarterback, but that doesn’t mean they should be in a hurry to throw him into the fire.
As high as they were on JJ McCarthy, they also knew they had a more-than-capable stopgap in Sam Darnold.
Darnold is talented and will have the best supporting cast of his career as a starter, not to mention a quarterback-friendly system with Kevin O’Connell at the helm.
That’s why NFL analyst Greg Cosell would be shocked if they were to bench him at some point in the season.
Talking on The Ross Tucker Podcast, Cosell claimed that the Vikings always knew that McCarthy wasn’t ready to play right away.
He stated that, for the intel he’s gathered from his sources, that hasn’t changed thus far, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.
Also, he doesn’t think the Vikings will be the kind of team that will go 1-6, and everybody will start calling for the rookie and to bench the veteran quarterback, as he believes they’re good enough to just hang around.
The Vikings gave Darnold a $10 million deal, and they wouldn’t have done so unless they thought he could be a legitimate starter for them, at least for the time being.
Of course, they will still give McCarthy every opportunity to earn the job and be successful.
But there’s absolutely no need to rush a quarterback to the field and mess with his development like we’ve seen other teams do multiple times in the past.
