After losing to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3 of the 2023 season, Kirk Cousins admitted that the Minnesota Vikings’ 0-3 start bothered him.

“I hope my boys find something they’re as passionate about as I am about football,” he said, referring to his sons Cooper and Turner, “but I hope it doesn’t torment them the way football torments me. I mean, I’m crawling in my skin [while] driving home from the stadium on Sunday and the last two days.”

The Vikings lost their first three games that season, including winnable contests in Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Week 3 against the Chargers. Still, the effects of that season continue to impact Minnesota to this day.

Only six 0-3 teams have made the playoffs in the modern era. Still, the Vikings decided to go for it, shoring up areas of weakness, hoping to build on their 13-win season in 2022. Minnesota traded for a disgruntled Cam Akers to bolster their run game and signed Dalton Risner to round out the offensive line.

The butterfly effect of the decision to go for it despite starting 0-3 continues to linger today.

Drake Maye, Sam Darnold, Bo Nix, or even Caleb Williams could be starting for the Vikings right now. However, Minnesota would have had to tank in 2023 or retain Darnold after his breakout last year. Instead, they tried to salvage the 2023 season. As a result, they enter next season with uncertainty about J.J. McCarthy.

“It’s one of the fun parts of the job when you can visually and collectively as a group identify some things and [say], ‘Let’s go fix them,’” Kevin O’Connell said in 2023, referring to Vikings ownership’s commitment to winning. “‘Let’s go try to do them better and see what that looks like.’”

However, 2023 became a lost season. Justin Jefferson injured his hamstring in a Week 5 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, which dropped the Vikings to 1-4. Cousins tore his Achilles in a Week 8 win over the Green Bay Packers, perhaps accelerating Minnesota’s decision to move on from him at age 35.

The timing of Jefferson and Cousins’ injuries likely influenced Minnesota’s decision to double down on the 2023 season. As a result, they missed out on Caleb Williams (first-overall) and Drake Maye (third-overall) in the 2024 draft. Maye led the New England Patriots to the AFC Championship game this year; Williams was an overtime loss away from taking the Chicago Bears to the NFC Championship game.

In Week 1 of the 2023 season, Minnesota may have come back against Tampa if Chris Godwin didn’t reel in a fingertip catch on third-and-10 before the two-minute warning. Similarly, ESPN gave the Vikings a 65.5% chance to beat the Chargers two weeks later after converting a fourth-and-five with 41 seconds left. However, Cousins threw an interception on the next play, ending the game.

Had the Vikings not traded for Akers and Risner, they may have tanked after losing Jefferson and falling to 1-4 in Week 5. Their Week 4 win in Charlotte hardly inspired confidence, nor did their Week 6 win in Chicago. They may have even punted on the season had they not beaten the San Francisco 49ers in Week 7.

Still, by the time they beat the Packers in Week 8, they were in too deep, despite losing Cousins. The three-win Bears got Williams in the draft, and the four-win Patriots grabbed Maye. Minnesota traded up to take J.J. McCarthy over Bo Nix.

Sean Payton made fun of the Vikings for trading ahead of the Denver Broncos, saying that they were going to take Nix all along. Still, Nix looks like a Tier 3 quarterback who needs a good defense and a sound running game to win. At 25, he’s unlikely to improve dramatically.

Meanwhile, Maye and Williams look like Tier 1 or 2 quarterbacks. Tier 1 quarterbacks can carry a team every week, while Tier 2 signal-callers can drive winning, just not as consistently. These quarterback tiers are a consensus ranking compiled by The Athletic’s Mike Sando, who asks NFL coaches and executives to rank quarterbacks every year anonymously.

McCarthy will likely remain a Tier 4 quarterback entering next season because he remains unproven. He flashed upside but also occasionally looked muddled throughout the year. That’s typical for a rookie quarterback. Still, it’s disappointing, given his situation. McCarthy is on a team that’s talented enough to make a playoff run, and the Vikings could have franchise-tagged Darnold last year.

Darnold started the season as a Tier 3 quarterback but likely will move to Tier 2 next season. The issue with moving on from Darnold isn’t only that he’s led Seattle to the NFC Championship as the NFC’s No. 1-seed. It’s that McCarthy is looking like a Tier 3 quarterback early in his career, while Darnold will likely outplay him in the immediate future.

Ultimately, the Vikings nearly had access to all four quarterbacks in the conference championship games next weekend. They didn’t have a viable pathway to get Matthew Stafford, one of five Tier 1 quarterbacks entering the season. Nor could they acquire Josh Allen, who lost to Denver last weekend, which cost longtime Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott his job.

Only one of the five Tier 1 quarterbacks entering this season (Stafford) reached the conference championship this year. Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Lamar Jackson didn’t make the playoffs. Allen is the other Tier 1 quarterback, making Buffalo’s loss to Denver that much harder on Bills fans.

Still, most teams need at least a Tier 2 quarterback to reach the conference championships. Drake Maye and Caleb Williams will get there next year. Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury over the weekend and likely will remain in Tier 3 even if he had played.

Therefore, the Vikings must hope that J.J. McCarthy takes a leap and looks like a Tier 2 quarterback next year. Otherwise, they may rue not tanking in 2023 or franchise-tagging Sam Darnold.

Every team has a hard time watching the playoffs from home. Still, it must be difficult for Kevin O’Connell, who previously coached under Sean McVay and the Rams. It also probably is for the Vikings, who could have taken Drake May had they prioritized the draft after starting 0-3 in 2023.