After the fallout of the Geno Smith trade with the Las Vegas Raiders, it appears that Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold is poised to become a Seattle Seahawk in free agency. So how do the Vikings pivot? Will they just roll with J.J. McCarthy or look at other options in the quarterback market?
Well, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported on Sunday, one day before the legal tampering period begins, that former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is very much in play for Minnesota.
According to Breer, both the Vikings and the Indianapolis Colts are in the Daniel Jones market as a possible competitor for their starting jobs. Jones, a former first-round pick for the New York Giants, was waived in November of last year and was signed to the Vikings’ practice squad before working his way onto the active roster in January.
If Jones happens to sign with the Colts, that’s when Breer believes that the Rodgers-Vikings steam is really going to pick up:
The Giants are in on Rodgers, and remain his most likely destination—they’d likely pair him with a rookie drafted somewhere in the top 100, if they do wind up landing him. Minnesota is lurking on Rodgers, in the event that Jones bolts.
NFL insiders Jordan Schultz of FOX Sports and Mike Garafolo of NFL Network also claim that the Vikings’ interest in Rodgers is real. You’d have to think, if all things are equal, that Rodgers would rather play in Minnesota, where the Vikings went 14-3 in 2024, than New York, where the Giants went 3-14.
Life is funny. There’s a real chance that Rodgers follows the footsteps of Brett Favre, who like Rodgers played one real season with the Jets in between his Packers and Vikings stints. If someone tried to pitch this script in Hollywood, it would be rejected for being so cliche.