Heading into the 1st Round of the 2024 NFL Draft, the consensus around the league was that the Minnesota Vikings would end the night with their quarterback of the future on the roster. Who that player was going to be remained a mystery. There was buzz that the Vikings had interest in Michael Penix Jr., but Penix was shockingly off the board by the time Minnesota was on the clock. Given Drake Maye's prior relationship with new Vikings quarterback coach Josh McCown, there were also rumblings that the Vikings could be in play for Maye if the Patriots were to move the 3rd overall pick or bypass Maye altogether. But the Patriots stood pat (pun intended) and took Maye.

The quarterback the Vikings ended up with at night's end was Michigan signal caller JJ McCarthy, who began to shoot up draft boards thanks to an impressive Combine performance, both on and off the field. Interestingly for Vikings fans, the selection of McCarthy doesn't just represent the possible future of the organization. It is in some way a strange reminder of where the franchise came from.

“Teams' most frequent comp for JJ McCarthy…Kirk Cousins,” ESPN's NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler tweeted after the Vikings moved up one spot in the draft and selected McCarthy with the 10th pick.

Now there are significantly worse outcomes for JJ McCarthy than a career that resembles Kirk Cousins', and I'm not just talking about the fact that over the course of a twelve year career, Cousins has become a very, very, very rich man. On Cousins' resume are four Pro Bowl appearances, six seasons with a winning percentage of .500 or better, and yes, boatloads of money. But in Minnesota, Cousins thrived in 88 games as the Vikings starter, accumulating a 50-37-1 record during his time in the Twin Cities.

Cousins threw for 23,265 passing yards, 171 touchdowns and 55 interceptions as a Viking, and he had four seasons of at least 4,000 passing yards and 29 touchdowns, finishing among the league-leaders in passing yards four times and touchdowns five times. This is the ‘sweet' in bittersweet.

The ‘bitter' was the lack of postseason success that Cousins had as the Vikings starter. In six seasons, Cousins led Minnesota to just two postseason appearances and one playoff win. Perhaps most notably, the Vikings lost in disappointing fashion to the New York Giants in the Wild Card Round in 2022 after a 13-win regular season.

The Vikings are still in search of their first Super Bowl victory, and now those hopes rest squarely on the shoulders of someone who knows a little something about winning championships. McCarthy led Michigan to their first National Title since 1997, but breaking a much longer drought for the Minnesota Vikings will prove to be a much more difficult undertaking.