The Minnesota Vikings had a brilliant season in 2024 as they ran through their schedule and finished the regular season with a 14-3 record. That was the most wins for any team that did not win a division title. The Vikings finished second to the Detroit Lions and lost the NFC North title when they fell to the Lions in the regular-season finale.

Their brilliant season came to a crashing halt the following week when they dropped the Wild Card game on the road to the Los Angeles Rams. A few weeks later, the Vikings let quarterback Sam Darnold leave the team through free agency even though he had been the architect of many of those victories.

The Vikings management and coaching staff believed that second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy would be ready to take the baton from Darnold and lift the Vikings to even greater heights. Instead, the untested McCarthy battled injuries and inconsistencies as the Vikings fell to 8-9 and tied for third place in the division.

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General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah thought the Vikings were making the right move at the time, but he has been filled with second thoughts over the decision. Darnold signed with the Seattle Seahawks and he will lead that team into Super Bowl 60.

“There are nights you wake up and stare at the ceiling and ask yourself,” Adofo-Mensah said. “I always go back to the process and what we thought at the time. I still understand why we did what we did. The results maybe didn’t play out the way we wanted them to, but ultimately, at the end of the day I think we could have executed in certain places.”

It's expected that the Vikings will bring in a veteran quarterback in the offseason to compete with McCarthy for the QB1 position.