As the Minnesota Vikings were preparing for the draft earlier this year with a keen eye on the prospects for their next franchise player, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell spoke often of the importance of immersing a young quarterback in an environment conducive to success.
When they targeted J.J. McCarthy in the first round, the Vikings were confident that they presented the culture, the offensive players and the playbook for the 10th overall pick to ultimately thrive, even if he needed time to develop.
As it turns out, they were busy making the place nice for Sam Darnold.
The seventh-year veteran who struggled through stints with the New York Jets and the Carolina Panthers joined the Vikings this season as a serviceable bridge to McCarthy who could deflect pressure from the rookie and lengthen his runway to taking the reins. With McCarthy on injured reserve while recovering from knee surgery, the stopgap label on Darnold quickly has peeled off.
With Darnold on his first four-game winning streak as an NFL starter and leading the league in passer rating and passing touchdowns, the Vikings (4-0) are one of just two undefeated teams left. The other is two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City.
“You guys can feel it, the juice and the energy in here. The momentum in football is a serious thing,” O’Connell said after the Vikings used a dominant first half to hold on for a 31-29 victory at Green Bay last week. “Just leaning into your quarterback. My confidence level in him is really high.”
PHOTOS: Sam Darnold is thriving with the undefeated Vikings. His original team, the Jets, is next
Darnold and the Vikings are preparing for another challenging test on Sunday, this time in London against the team that drafted him third overall in 2018. The Jets look a lot different now, of course, but there’s no hiding from the feelings-about-facing-your-former-team storyline in the NFL.
“I had a lot of opportunities in New York,” Darnold said diplomatically, “and I always felt like I could’ve played better there.”
The early returns on this season suggest the Jets were the reason that Darnold started his career so poorly, with a 13-25 record as the starter from 2018-20. The Panthers didn’t do anything from 2021-22 to disprove that theory, either. But Darnold, who was announced Thursday as the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Month award winner, has three-quarters of the schedule left to continue to prove his worth as a successful starter.
“I think he’s doing a great job, man,” said Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, his teammate in 2019-20. “He’s playing out of his mind right now.”
The Vikings went 11-17-1 against Aaron Rodgers when he played for the Packers, their NFC North nemesis, allowing 57 touchdown passes with just eight interceptions in those 29 games. He’s wearing a different shade of green and there’s a lot more gray in his beard, but those laser throws and shrewd decisions still look the same.
“As special of a thrower of a football as maybe we’ve seen, and he’s a super computer back there,” O’Connell said. “Totally big field vision, sees everything, and has the ability to check and get to whatever he wants to get to. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge.”
The 40-year-old Rodgers, who needs 74 yards to pass Dan Marino for seventh place on the all-time list for regular season and postseason passing, has a big fan in Vikings running back Aaron Jones, his teammate in Green Bay for six years.
“He would advocate for me to see the field, whether it be in meetings or in the middle of the game, so I’m so thankful for Aaron Rodgers and what he’s done for me in my career,” Jones said. “It was kind of eye-opening that he was speaking up for me. At the time, I was a rookie and he was a future Hall of Famer, so it was just like, ‘Wow, this is Aaron Rodgers speaking up for me.’”
The Jets have been mentioned as a trade destination for dissatisfied Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams, who spent the first eight years of his career in Green Bay with Rodgers, but the Jets were naturally disinclined this week to speculate about a theoretical transaction.
“We’ll always look at everything,” coach Robert Saleh said, speaking in general terms. “But at the same time, we’re locked in on the guys that are here, and those are the guys we’re going to focus on.”
This is technically a home game for the Vikings, who’ll have to forgo their raucous environment under the roof at U.S. Bank Stadium and the advantage that gives their defense amid the din. Their fans travel well, but Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is open air and bound to have plenty of Jets fans, too.
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores smiled as he dodged a question from a reporter about whether he was disappointed the Vikings won’t get Rodgers in Minnesota.
“I wouldn’t say I’m going to punt, but I’m very happy to go to London and have that experience,” Flores said.
The Jets committed 15 penalties last week against Denver, with 13 accepted. Five were false-start calls, raising the question about whether the cadence of Rodgers’ pre-snap calls has caused problems for his offensive linemen. Saleh insisted that Rodgers’ cadence is a benefit to the Jets in the chess match against opposing defenses and they’ll always “push the envelope” with the way they use it.
“We’re confident about our plan to attack that, and we’ve just got to clean it up,” center Joe Tippmann said of the pre-snap penalties. “We’ve got to be better. We can’t beat ourselves before the play even starts.”
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