| 1/16/2025 2:34:00 PM | Coach Kevin O'Connell said Thursday that McCarthy (knee) has resumed on-field work and is "right where we hoped he would be" in advance of the offseason, Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com reports. |
| The Vikings drafted McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in last year's draft, likely with the expectation that he would see game action during his rookie campaign. He in fact experienced live action football, but a promising pro debut in the preseason on Aug. 10 was followed by news a few days later that he tore the meniscus in his right knee and was out for the season. McCarthy thus spent the year on injured reserve, while watching journeyman Sam Darnold have a career season. Darnold will be an unrestricted free agent in March, so Minnesota could use the franchise tag on him or figure out some sort of multi-year deal, either of which could impact McCarthy's ability to vault into the No. 1 spot on the QB depth chart. Nevertheless, for the time being, McCarthy will focus on the later stages of his recovery effort. | |
| 1/15/2025 5:17:00 PM | The Vikings signed Rypien to a reserve/future contract Wednesday, Craig Peters of the team's official site reports. |
| Rypien was signed by the Vikings in late August after failing to make the Bears' 53-man roster at the conclusion of training camp. He spent the entire regular season as the third-string emergency quarterback behind Sam Darnold and Nick Mullens, but Rypien was waived by Minnesota on Jan. 7 to make room on the roster for Daniel Jones. Rypien was brought back to the practice squad two days later, and now that's under a futures contract, he'll be a part of the Vikings' 90-man roster when the new league year starts March 12. That will allow him to work with Minnesota's coaching and training staff during the offseason and participate in OTAs, minicamp and training camp. Rypien has appeared in 10 regular-season games since being signed by the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in April of 2019. | |
| 1/13/2025 11:44:00 PM | Darnold completed 25 of 40 passes for 245 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the Vikings' 27-9 wild-card loss to the Rams on Monday night. He also rushed four times for 19 yards and lost a fumble. |
| While his final stat line looks serviceable enough, it belies the uneven nature of Darnold's season-ending performance and the amount of duress he frequently found himself under from a Rams defense that collected a whopping nine sacks against him for a net loss of 82 yards. Darnold couldn't facilitate anything more than a 64-yard effort -- that total belonging to T.J. Hockenson -- for his pass catchers, and although he targeted the duo of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison a combined 16 times, that only yielded a modest 8-87-0 line. Darnold's fumble, which came with just over four and a half minutes remaining in the first half, also had disastrous consequences, as it was scooped up and returned 57 yards for a touchdown by Jared Verse to extend Los Angeles' lead to two scores at the time. Darnold rightfully received plenty of credit for the Vikings' standout regular season by putting together a career-best 2024 campaign in which he completed 361 of 545 passes for 4,319 yards with a 35:12 TD:INT and added a 67-212-1 rushing line, all across 17 games. However, he looked like a different quarterback in back-to-back lopsided losses to the Lions and Rams to close out Minnesota's season, and with unrestricted free agency looming for him at the start of the new league year, the topic of Darnold's future will be one of great intrigue considering the presence of 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy (knee) on Minnesota's roster. | |
| 1/13/2025 7:03:00 PM | Jones (coach's decision) is inactive for Monday's NFC wild-card game against the Rams but will serve as the Vikings' emergency third-string quarterback, Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. |
| Jones joined the Vikings' practice squad in late November after being released by the Giants. He wasn't elevated to Minnesota's active roster during the regular season, but he was signed to the active roster this past Tuesday. As the emergency quarterback, Jones will not be allowed to play Monday unless starter Sam Darnold and backup Nick Mullens were both to be taken out of the game due to injury, illness or ejection. | |
| 11/27/2024 7:54:00 PM | Mullens played two of the Vikings' 71 offensive snaps in Sunday's 30-27 overtime win over the Bears, completing his lone pass attempt for a 14-yard gain. |
| For the first time since Week 5, Mullens was summoned from the bench to replace Sam Darnold, who walked off the field slowly after taking a hit on an incomplete pass on 2nd-and-13 with 6:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. Mullens came in on third down and found an open Aaron Jones in the middle of the field to extend the drive, then handed the ball off to Jones on the next play before Darnold was cleared to return to the game. Darnold was able to finish out the game and doesn't appear on the Vikings' Week 13 injury report, so Mullens looks poised to remain in a backup role moving forward. He may not be the top choice if Darnold were to miss time with an injury later on this season, however, as the Vikings signed Daniel Jones to their practice squad Wednesday and presumably view him as an upgrade over Mullens for the No. 2 role. | |