The Minnesota Vikings will be in the spotlight in the next couple of months as starting quarterback Sam Darnold is set to enter free agency without a contract for the 2025 campaign, leaving the franchise with only injured but promising J.J. McCarthy and depth player Brett Rypien at the crucial QB position.
Bleacher Report’s Bizarre Vikings QB Option
The club has two options: keeping Darnold to give McCarthy more time to grow on the sidelines or handing him the keys. The latter choice would likely involve the signing of a different veteran QB who could start in place of McCarthy if the 2024 draft pick isn’t ready to compete in Week 1 for one reason or another.
That guy could be a longtime starter and now reserve like Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, or a Darnold-like reclamation project. It could be former Bears first-rounder Justin Fields, thinks Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon.
He assembled a list of five impending free agents who could be success stories on their new teams, and he suggested that Fields has the talent to reach a new level on a team and could flourish with the Vikings.
There were signs.
Not enough of ’em for him to hold off Russell Wilson during a resurgent season for the veteran future Hall of Famer, but Justin Fields flashed his incredibly deep and unique athletic ability during a stronger-than-many-expected early-2024 run with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The 2021 No. 11 overall pick threw just one interception on 161 attempts and posted a career-best passer rating of 93.3 while helping the Steelers win four of the six games he started.
Maybe Fields will never be a classically elite quarterback, but in the right environment he could absolutely work as a game-changing offensive weapon on a consistent basis.
Imagine him in a special role with the Vikings, for example?
The former 11th overall pick had a decent start to the season with the Steelers, winning four of his six starts, but Mike Tomlin ultimately opted to hand the keys to Russell Wilson.
Fields appeared in ten games and threw for 1,106 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception. He added 289 rushing yards and five scores on the ground.
There’s no doubt about it; Fields’s rushing skills are intriguing. In his sophomore campaign in 2022, the former Ohio State standout broke the 1,000-yard barrier (1,143 yards), and he recorded over 2,500 rushing yards in his four seasons in the NFL.
The problem, however, is that he hasn’t developed into an NFL-level passer. That doesn’t work in Kevin O’Connell’s pass-heavy offense and would require the recently extended head coach to implement a totally new offense. We’ve seen that movie with Joshua Dobbs, who excelled in a backyard-style offense for a couple of weeks, but when it came to operating O’Connell’s offense, he miserably failed.
The coach needs a quarterback with the requisite arm that can make any available throw outside the numbers. Fields is not that guy.
Still, he could be a solid player in the right offense and will likely generate some interest in free agency, but the Vikings will most likely look in a different direction. He will turn 26 in March.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this article.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt