Lumen Field (Seattle) — Justin Jefferson shared a prolonged hug with his former quarterback, Sam Darnold, at midfield after the Minnesota Vikings’ embarrassing 26-0 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, which marked Minnesota’s first shutout loss since 2007.
A year ago on this same field, Darnold led the Vikings to a 27-24 comeback victory, hitting Jefferson for a 39-yard strike for the winning score. Jefferson finished with 10 catches for 144 receiving yards and two scores on that day, while Darnold posted 246 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.
The Vikings finished an impressive 14-3 in 2024, but Darnold struggled in his last two games of the year. As a result, Minnesota’s brass decided to go with 2024 first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy at quarterback over the offseason, with Darnold signing a more lucrative, three-year $100 million deal with the Seahawks. The Indianapolis Colts also outbid the Vikings to secure their former backup, Daniel Jones, who has led a rebirth for that team.
Those offseason decisions have proven to be a disaster for the Vikings. Darnold and Jones are thriving in their new homes, with both of their teams sitting in a playoff spot following Sunday’s games. The Vikings, meanwhile, are staring at a top-10 draft pick at 4-8 with a little over a month to go in the season.
Justin Jefferson and Sam Darnold shared an embrace following Sunday’s game after forming one of the league’s best QB-WR tandems last season. (Photo by Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)
On top of the Vikings watching their former quarterbacks thrive elsewhere, the McCarthy experience hasn’t gone well in Minnesota. McCarthy missed all last season with a knee injury and has struggled to stay on the field this year, playing in just six games. And when he’s been healthy, McCarthy hasn’t covered himself in glory. McCarthy had his worst performance this year in Minnesota’s 26-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 12, throwing for 87 yards, with no touchdowns and two interceptions. McCarthy was sacked five times, posting a 34.2 passer rating.
McCarthy suffered a concussion in that game and was not cleared in time for the contest at Seattle, meaning undrafted rookie Max Brosmer got his first start. And he managed to play even worse than McCarthy’s performance last week, finishing 19 of 30 for 126 yards, with no touchdown passes and four interceptions. Brosmer was sacked four times and posted a 32.8 passer rating in his NFL debut.
Jefferson finished with two receptions for four yards on six targets, his lowest output this year. For the season, the league’s second-highest-paid receiver has just two touchdowns, hasn’t had a 100-yard receiving performance since Week 5 and is averaging a career-low 12.9 yards per catch.
Jefferson declined to talk to reporters after the game, which was the first time he’s done that this season, according to reporters who regularly cover the Vikings. Jefferson’s silence on and off the field speaks to the poor quarterback performance Minnesota has received since moving on from Darnold.
Moments of celebration between J.J. McCarthy and Justin Jefferson have come few and far between this season. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
The Vikings are a team built to win now, filled with dynamic performers in wide receiver Jordan Addison, tight end T.J. Hockenson, running back Aaron Jones Sr. and Jefferson on offense. All they need is competent quarterback play. The Vikings should be able to lean on head coach Kevin O’Connell to get McCarthy and Brosmer to play to their full potential.
But neither, at least at this point of the season, has shown they have the talent or ability to expertly execute this type of offense to the level that Darnold did a year ago.
The Vikings, understandably, are committed to developing McCarthy because of the first-round draft pick they spent to get him two years ago. Balancing that development with putting a team together that can compete for a title in the NFC North has proven difficult. The Vikings are averaging 18.7 points per game this season (No. 28 in the NFL). They averaged 25.4 points per game (No. 9 in the NFL) last season.
“We just did not have the type of an offensive performance that is ever going to be acceptable with the Minnesota Vikings organization,” O’Connell told reporters. “That obviously starts with me. It’s not about any one particular player or position. It’s a collective group thing right now where we are just not good enough to overcome some of the things that we’re doing, overcoming some injuries up front and overcoming some of the things that are happening.
“We’ve got to find a way to put a game plan together as simple as it needs to be or as tight as it needs to be from a call count standpoint just to get a little bit better execution and get some of the things that winning football looks like and try to play our part offensively with the other two phases on our team.”
Minnesota native Adam Thielen, who is in his second stint with the Vikings after spending the first 10 seasons of his career with the organization, has seen the writing on the wall. Playing in his last NFL season, Thielen asked the Vikings for his release so he could play elsewhere for the rest of the year to compete for a Super Bowl. The team granted him that wish on Monday.
Jefferson so far has said all the right things during a dreadful season for the Vikings. He still has three years and $89.5 million in compensation remaining on a contract he signed last offseason.
But at 26 years old and with the Vikings looking at a full rebuild this offseason, who could blame Jefferson for seeking greener pastures to find a quarterback who can take full advantage of his unique skill set, like the one he had a year ago that he was left to embrace postgame on Sunday?
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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