As the Minnesota Vikings prepared for the draft earlier this year with a keen eye on the prospects of their next franchise player, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell often spoke of the importance of immersing a young quarterback in an environment conducive to success.
When they targeted JJ McCarthy in the first round, the Vikings were confident they had provided the culture, offensive players and playbook for the 10th overall pick to eventually flourish, 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 during stints with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers joined the Vikings this season as a serviceable bridge for McCarthy who can take pressure off the rookie and lengthen his runway to take over. With McCarthy on injured reserve while recovering from knee surgery, the stopgap tag on Darnold quickly faded.
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 only two teams yet to be defeated. The other is two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City.
“You guys can feel it, the juice and the energy that’s here. Momentum in football is a dangerous thing,” O’Connell said after the Vikings used a dominant first half to cruise to a 31-29 win over Green Bay last week. “Just lean on the quarterback. My confidence level in him is really high.”
Darnold and the Vikings are preparing for another tough 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 the emotions surrounding the matchup. -The story of your former NFL team.
“I had a lot of opportunities in New York, and I always felt like I could have played better there,” Darnold said diplomatically.
Early returns this season suggest the Jets are the reason Darnold started his career so poorly, with a 13-25 record as a starter from 2018-20. And the Panthers did nothing from 2021-22 to disprove that theory either. But Darnold, who was announced Thursday as the NFC Offensive Player of the Year winner, has three-quarters of the schedule left to continue proving his value 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 now.”
Aaron Rodgers, the most famous enemy
The Vikings went 11-17-1 against Aaron Rodgers when he played for the Packers, their NFC North foe, 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 of gray in his beard. , but the laser throws and smart decisions still feel the same.
“He’s as special of a football thrower as we’ve seen, and he’s a super computer right there,” O’Connell said. “Absolutely great field vision, sees everything, and has the ability to check and get to what he wants to get to. It’s going to be a big challenge.”
The 40-year-old Rodgers, who needs 74 yards to pass Dan Marino for seventh on the all-time list for regular season and postseason passing, has a huge fan following in Vikings running back Aaron Jones, his teammate in Green Bay for six years.
“He would invite me to see the field, whether it was in meetings or mid-game, so I’m very grateful to Aaron Rodgers and what he did for me in my career,” Jones said. “It was kind of amazing that he was speaking for me. At the time, I was a rookie and he was a future Hall of Famer, so it was like, ‘Wow, this is Aaron Rodgers speaking for me.’
Adams-Rodgers reunion?
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 unwilling this week to speculate on a theoretical deal.
“We will always look at everything,” coach Robert Saleh said, speaking generally. “But at the same time, we’re limited to the people who are here, and those are the people we’re going to focus on.”
Bring noise
This is technically a home game for the Vikings, who will have to give up their noisy environment under the roof of U.S. Bank Stadium and the advantage it gives their defense amid the noise. Their fans travel well, but Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is open air and is bound to have a lot of Jets fans too.
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores smiled as he dodged a reporter’s question about whether he was disappointed the Vikings wouldn’t beat Rodgers in Minnesota.
“I wouldn’t say I would take a gamble, but I’m very happy to go to London and have this experience,” Flores said.
cleaning
The Jets committed 15 penalties last week against Denver, 13 of which were conceded. Five of them were false start calls, raising questions about whether the cadence of Rodgers’ pre-snap calls caused problems for his offensive linemen. Saleh insisted that Rodgers’ tempo is beneficial to the Jets in a chess match against opposing defenses and they will always “push the envelope” with the way they use it.
“We’re confident in our plan of attack, we just have to clean it up,” midfielder Joe Tippman said of the penalty kill leading up to the offense. “We have to be better. We can’t beat ourselves before the game even starts.”
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