Mike Florio drops bombshell claiming J.J. McCarthy will demand trade if Vikings re-sign Sam Darnold on 2-year deal

Mike Florio claimed that J.J. McCarthy might request a trade if the Vikings sign Sam Darnold on a deal for more than a year. The veteran quarterback penned a one-year $10 million deal last offseason and went on to have a career year as the rookie, who was slated to be the franchise's future, suffered a season-ending injury in the preseason.

Mike Florio said that Darnold was having an MVP-level year before stumbling in the final two games, both of which were crucial to their season's eventual outcome. The regular-season loss saw them surrender the top seed in the NFC to the Detroit Lions before the playoff loss saw them knocked out by the Los Angeles Rams. The analyst said,

"Because if they make a two-year commitment to Sam Darnold, I predict J.J. McCarthy is going to ask to be traded. And maybe that's what the Vikings would want to do. You know, before the wheels came off in week 18 for Darnold, before the chariot went back into a pumpkin, the thinking was, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, we kind of stumbled into plutonium by accident with Sam Darnold."

J.J. McCarthy is now back and Mike Florio thinks that the player will not accept a situation similar to what transpired with their NFC North rivals. Jordan Love sat for three years behind Aaron Rodgers before taking the reins for the Green Bay Packers, but the analyst believes that the second-year player will not be willing to do that and sit behind Sam Darnold.

"If they try to do an Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love, sit three years handoff to McCarthy, McCarthy is not going to be on board with it, I believe. That's going to be a problem. And through it all, and I wrote this yesterday, and, you know, I mean, I got to be real with everybody."

Kevin O'Connell bigs up J.J. McCarthy as he defends Vikings' decision not to franchise tag Sam Darnold

The franchise tag deadline came and went without the Vikings placing it on Sam Darnold. They are willing to let him test free agency and head coach Kevin O'Connell said that it has nothing to do with Mike Florio's hypothesis about J.J. McCarthy. Instead, he said that the veteran deserved to test the open market after the fabulous season he had given them.

"He's earned the right to be a free agent." - said the Minnesota manager about his 2024 starter.

O'Connell also said that he foresees a future for their first-round pick in last year's draft, commenting,

"We're absolutely fired up about J.J. McCarthy... And I'm fired up about J.J.'s future and where he's at coming off of a really unfortunate injury."

The fine balancing act is set to continue until Minnesota or some other team signs Sam Darnold.