The Minnesota Vikings made a calculated decision last offseason, opting to move on from Sam Darnold following his breakout season and going all-in on untested quarterback J.J. McCarthy. The move backfired during the 2025 NFL season, and even Justin Jefferson seems to acknowledge the team was made worse because of it.
In an interview with USA Today, Jefferson acknowledged that the Vikings would’ve been better this season if Darnold was their starting quarterback instead of McCarthy.
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“Yeah, for sure, definitily. Everyone knows the difficulty of the quarterback position this year, how we were dealt it. But having a quarterback that already had a season under his belt with us, knew the plays, knew the playbook, knew the players, throwing to me, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, all these guys, I definitely feel like we would have done better. But it is what it is, it’s on to newer and better things. But I’m definitely happy and proud of him that he is able to reach it this year.”
Justin Jefferson on if the Minnesota Vikings would’ve been better in 2025 with Sam Darnold
The NFL stats speak for themselves. In 2024, the Vikings’ offense ranked 13th in scoring rate (41.4 percent), 12th in points per drive (2.16), sixth in passing yards per game (237.8), and fifth in both passing touchdown rate (6.4 percent) and dropback success rate (50.8 percent). Compare that to this past season, when Minnesota placed 29th in passing (188.7 yards per game), 28th in dropback success rate (41.9 percent), and 27th in passing touchdown rate (3.7 percent) and points per drive (1.82).
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Despite having one of the league’s best defenses, Minnesota went from 14–3 to 9–8, and its point differential dropped from plus-100 to plus-11 year-over-year. In 17 games, the Vikings allowed just one more point than they did in 2024 but scored 88 fewer points.
In particular, Jefferson’s production suffered. He finished with career lows in receiving yards (1,048) and touchdowns (two) despite playing in all 17 games. Most alarmingly, after averaging 98.2 receiving yards per game from 2021 to 2024, he averaged just 61.6 per game this past season.
Ultimately, the decision to let Darnold walk and roll with McCarthy resulted in general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah being fired. The Vikings now enter the offseason only partially committing to their top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, while putting out strong signals that a viable starter will be brought in to challenge him.
