The 2024 Minnesota Vikings were a team out of a movie. Freed from the Kirk Cousins vortex, the Vikings entered a world of uncertainty at quarterback. After J.J. McCarthy‘s season-ending injury, they were led by Sam Darnold, who was best known as the QB who once saw ghosts on national television. Vegas set Minnesota’s over/under total at 6.5 games, and the Vikings went on to more than double that total with a 14-win season.
Ask any Vikings fan on the street today, and they’ll remember that season fondly. For a franchise that has hit the 14-win plateau just twice in its 65-year history, it has a special place in the memory banks, even if it ended with back-to-back, soul-crushing losses.
It was a great year. But it may have been the worst thing to happen to the 2025 Vikings.
That isn’t to say that winning is bad. For a team that had never won a Super Bowl, winning 14 games put them in a position to end that drought and elevated the stock of everyone associated with the franchise. But it also raised the expectations for this season, which the Vikings have come woefully short of to date.
Like many conversations surrounding this year’s team, it began with the quarterback position. Kevin O’Connell’s work with Darnold made many believe that he could turn a broomstick into a Pro Bowl-caliber signal caller. As a top-10 quarterback waiting in the wings, many believed McCarthy would have a seamless transition to the NFL.
The Vikings had already experienced this before. Daunte Culpepper redshirted his rookie season in 1999 and led Minnesota to the NFC Championship Game in his first year as a starter after they handed them the keys in 2000.
While it was a nostalgic plan that made sense with the 2024 season, it also required hubris from the front office. McCarthy was in the building for a full year, but he had not practiced with the team. Although the Vikings tried to keep either Darnold or Daniel Jones in the building, both saw how much the team had invested in McCarthy and decided to take their chances with the Seattle Seahawks and Indianapolis Colts, respectively.
Aaron Rodgers threw himself at the Vikings a few weeks later, and tensions ran higher than the day Jim Harbaugh came to TCO Performance Center before they hired O’Connell in 2022. But, after a few days, the Vikings decided that it would better serve McCarthy’s development if Rodgers didn’t start the season, forging ahead with a relative unknown.
That would have been fine if the Vikings were just a team in the NFL hierarchy. But the previous year’s expectations required a Super Bowl chase. That led Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his staff to fill every hole through free agency. While some teams can find gems in this scenario, the Vikings shopped at a car lot full of lemons.
Ryan Kelly bowed out with his fifth concussion dating back to 2023. Will Fries was another Colts import who has fallen woefully short of becoming Steve Hutchinson 2.0. The defensive line signings worked just about well; Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave aren’t anywhere near their Pro Bowl form. Other signings, such as Jeff Okudah, flamed out faster than you can say, Are you sure about that?
It goes beyond the signings. Minnesota’s hubris extended to its own schedule when it booked a two-week trip in Europe. The idea of replacing two road games with neutral-site contests sounded appealing. Still, the thrill quickly dissipated when the team was essentially locked inside a hotel in the middle of nowhere. By the time they arrived back in America, everyone deserved their favorite beverage.
However, it all hid the biggest storyline of all – McCarthy’s development.
Because of Minnesota’s success the previous year and the choices they made leading up to this year, they’ve raised McCarthy in the spotlight. Other quarterbacks, such as Caleb Williams, lived the same fate. Still, nobody was second-guessing the Chicago Bears for starting him after he was the first-overall pick.
Going back a few years, Josh Allen was able to avoid a situation with the Buffalo Bills. Joining a team in the midst of a full rebuild, Allen worked through the kinks for a few years and became the quarterback they had been searching for. In this situation, McCarthy was Mahomes replacing Alex Smith with the 2018 Kansas City Chiefs. Unsurprisingly, it has not gone well.
McCarthy darted out of the way of a barreling Justin Jefferson on the sideline last Thursday, which has raised questions about his supposed health woes. The term “soft benching” has gained an infamous spot in Vikings history as “Love Boat.” His rolled ankle turned into the Zapruder film, and it’s led some fans to label McCarthy a bust after just two games.
With that, the 2025 Vikings have been inside their first pressure cooker, and the steam began to leak in Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Getting walloped on national television happens. But when it looks like everyone wants to go home, it’s cause for a five-alarm warning.
Perhaps the weight of a season that was too good to be true has carried over to the Vikings, and they’re beginning to fold under the pressure. Maybe McCarthy’s return is the release valve that can get them back to competing in a wide-open NFC playoff race. Whatever it is, the 2024 season has become a curse for this team, one they have to banish if they have any hope of turning the year around.