Why the Minnesota Vikings Should Start Rookie QB J.J. McCarthy in Week 1

The Minnesota Vikings have a change under center for Week 1 after nearly seven years. For the previous six seasons, Kirk Cousins was the man to lead Vikings at the start of every new season. Now, the Vikings’ chief concern seems to be who between Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy should start the 2024 season opener against the Giants.

On one hand, the Vikings have a six-year veteran of the league in Darnold. The California native started his career in New York, playing three seasons with the Jets. He then played the next two seasons for the Panthers before he went to the West Coast in 2023 to the 49ers.

The problem with Darnold is that his best season came in 2019. Tha was his second year, and even then, he had just 3,024 passing yards in 13 games with 19 touchdowns and 13 interceptions as he led the Jets to a 7-6 record. Since then, Darnold’s performances have not improved, which begs the question of whether he should start for the Vikings in week 1.

On the other hand, the Vikings have the option of thrusting their rookie first-round selection J.J. McCarthy into the deep end right off the bat. The decision about who starts the 2024 season is still pending, but the limited news coming from the Vikings’ camp seems to suggest that they are prepared to let McCarthy sit it out at least for a while.

The following couple of points outline why starting McCarthy in Week 1 would not be such a bad idea for the Vikings.

Learn from mistakes

There are a couple of schools of thought on this. One ideology that many coaches take is to draft talented players from college and have them sit behind a veteran to learn from them. Some excellent examples of this include Aaron Rodgers, who sat for three years behind Brett Favre. Jordan Love followed in the same suit for the Packers, and Patrick Mahomes sat for a year behind Alex Smith.

Other coaches believe in the approach of letting their rookies, especially those from Rounds 1 and 2, start from the get-go. They believe that rookies will not only learn from their mistakes, but will essentially develop better by starting immediately. The best example of this is Peyton Manning and the Colts in 1998. Although Manning had a horrendous season setting an NFL record of 28 interceptions (most by a rookie QB), he learned from his mistakes and got much better.

Former Vikings receiver Randy Moss is of the opinion that the Vikings must start McCarthy in Week 1 and let him figure things out on the fly.

Since there really is no right or wrong answer to the problem at hand, the Vikings can start McCarthy in the season opener considering their other potential starter is Darnold, who has not exactly lit up the league.

Vikings’ offensive weapons

Whoever the Vikings’ QB1 is for Week 1 of the new season, they will be throwing primarily to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, two quality receivers. It will be ideal to start McCarthy and get him up to speed with his receiving options as soon as possible.

If McCarthy is able to establish a great connection with his primary wideouts, Minnesota will be able to take things forward from there. What is essentially the plan for 2025 can start coming to fruition this year itself.

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