No.
They just got out from under a huge QB contract that ate up too much of the salary cap and hindered the rest of the roster and the ability to add to it. They carried some of that big cap hit this year, and even with just a little bit of cap freedom were able to make some great impact signings with Greenard, Van Ginkle, and Cashman. I don't think they want to give Sam, who is now as big a question mark going forward as kurt was coming off of an Achilles tear, the kind of money that once again, hamstrings them cap-wise.
Couldn't be any further than the truth.
They were a 6.5 win team by Vegas to start the year. Looking back at that, vegas was wrong, but they still overachieved to a level never seen before, and it was fun, but this is not a SB team. If you think this team is ready to pop, you're on drugs.
They tricked up guy that had been thrown on the scrap heap and rode it until the wheels fell off.
Look at the roster up and down. Need a RB. Jones was a rental that couldn't stay healthy. Interior OL is held together by bubblegum and yarn which was evident any time they played a DL and DC that were competent. Interior DL lacks an alpha that can pass rush, which in today's game is as important or more than pressure on the edge, as it gets there faster. The CBs are old rentals. Potential/borderline HOF safety may retire. Another excellent safety in Bynum probably won't be back.
If you wanna look at statistics, they all lead back to Darnold playing above his pay grade for most of the year. The run defense was great statistically because the offense was getting ahead early in games and teams were forced to pass. When teams didn't let the Vikes get a lead, they were able to run the ball easily.
Vikes have a lot of work to do to catch up to the true contenders in the NFL, and giving a boatload of money to a guy that turned back into a pumpkin in front of the entire world, twice, doesn't solve it. You move ahead with a HC that has proven he can make chicken salad out of chicken $#!T, let him have his QB, on a rookie scale contract, and see what they can do.
McCarthy has won everywhere he's been. He was in line to compete for the starting job before he got hurt. They made the smart move and had him do the full repair instead of the partial to make sure he heals correctly for the long term. Now, you turn it over to him and use your $65M in effective cap space and build a complete team around him.
And the folks saying you have to keep darnold because of what he did this year, statistically, compared to the "unknown" in McCarthy are the same people that were saying the team was going to be awful and win 3 games without kurt and that Jefferson is going to ask for a trade if you get rid of kurt, and that they were semi-competitive with kurt. Look what they did with a bust QB and some cap space to build a roster.
I have no fear letting darnold walk for McCarthy. If McCarthy is such an unknown and a potential disaster, then why was everyone saying a couple weeks ago that any team that needs a QB in the draft should be willing to pony up this years 1st round pick plus more to trade for McCarthy? Plenty of folks saying if he'd have stayed in college this year he'd be the 1st overall QB off the board.
