The Minnesota Vikings had quite the day for their organization on Monday. The team announced an incredible and heartfelt piece of news earlier today when they announced how they are going to honor the young Khyree Johnson, who tragically passed away in a car accident:
“The #Vikings will cover a significant portion of the funeral expenses for Khyree Jackson, who tragically passed away in a car accident earlier this month,” NFL Insider Ari Meirov tweeted on Monday. “They will also pay out the remainder of his signing bonus to his estate and honor him with a decal on their helmets this season. His No. 31 will not be worn by any player this season.”
We all send our heart felt thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of a young man who was taken too early.
While this was the biggest news of the day to come out of Minnesota, it appears that they also have revealed who will be their No. 1 quarterback to start camp, and their may be quite the intense quarterback battle during training camp.
Sam Darnold Looks Like QB1 For The Minnesota Vikings
The team is entering training camp with perhaps the NFL’s most intriguing quarterback controversy, unless you ask a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Now league veteran Sam Darnold will try to fend off the National Champion J.J. McCarthy, for what might be Darnold’s last shot at a starting role in the league.
Darnold has appeared to be the starter to start training camp, and it will be his job to lose to be the starter on week 1 for the team, which has an incredible amount of talent on the offensive side of the ball.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell repeated the same notion on Monday that Darnold will get the offense’s first team reps during training camp per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. However, he did mention that McCarthy will get a chance to play some snaps with the starters. That may open the door for McCarthy to steal the top spot heading into 2024.
If McCarthy can impress the staff when he gets his opportunity to pass to league best Justin Jefferson, than he can spark quite the battle as the season gets close. We know the Vikings staff and front office love McCarthy so they just need any reason to put him in.
Can Sam Darnold Be The Next Geno Smith?
While Minnesota has put in all their faith in McCarthy being their future, their is a real opportunity for Sam to revamp his career with the Vikings. He signed a one year $10 million deal after the team parted ways with long time starter Kirk Cousins. They proceeded to fill up the QB room with drafting McCarthy a month later.
Darnold is a former No. 3 pick who never really had any talent around him when he’s got his opportunities in the NFL. He has now traveled to a few teams and most recently was the back up to Brock Purdy for the San Francisco 49ers. This will be the first time that Darnold will have some incredible offensive talent around him and the team is excited to see what he can do.
ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler said on Saturday’s SportsCenter that the Team is “really excited” about potentially unlocking Sam and perhaps having a Geno Smith style impact like in Seattle:
“They believe there’s untapped potential here,” Fowler said, via Bleacher Report. “He’s never quite had a supporting cast like this with Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson and Aaron Jones, so he’s underachieved so far. They’re hoping he can maybe have a Geno Smith-type impact like in Seattle.”
The team definitely does not want to rush McCarthy into action when he is not prepared to take on that role. A rookie quarterback is a tricky situation when to get them into the starting lineup. Because of all of that, we should expect Darnold to be the day one starter at camp and he will likely have another opportunity to start in the NFL.
