![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kevin-oconnell-minnesota-vikings.jpg\")
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(Photo by Steph Chambers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
With Sam Darnold<\/a> in the Super Bowl, the topic of the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> allowing him to leave has been front and center on mainstream sports media shows. The Vikings\u2019 decision to fire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their general manager, with the Darnold decision being one factor.<\/p>\n However, ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith Adofo-Mensah shouldn\u2019t be the only one receiving blame for the decision to let Darnold leave Minnesota and commit to J.J. McCarthy<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat has me suspicious right now monitoring the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> is now that Adofo\u2019s gone as your GM, as your man calling the shots, right now we\u2019re hearing, well, it really wouldn\u2019t have anything to do with Kevin O\u2019Connell, he really didn\u2019t want to lose Sam Darnold,\u201d Smith said on the Feb. 2 edition of \u201cFirst Take.\u201d<\/a> \u201cThat really wasn\u2019t his decision. BS. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to hear that. The quarterback whisperer had established himself as one of the bright young coaches in football. There is no way in hell he didn\u2019t have a say as to Sam Darnold walking out that building. I don\u2019t believe it\u2026 How the hell do you not have any say over Sam Darnold staying on board as your quarterback? Somehow, someway you convince them, \u2018Oh man, I\u2019ll make J.J. McCarthy work. I\u2019ll make it work. Ain\u2019t no big deal.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n Were the Vikings Arrogant With Letting Sam Darnold Walk?<\/p>\n Moreover, former NFL<\/a> offensive lineman Damien Woody stated that O\u2019Connell\u2019s reputation for getting the most out of QBs likely led to an arrogant stance that he could develop McCarthy into a starting signal-caller.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do think there was a level of arrogance because we do call Kevin O\u2019Connell like the quarterback whisperer,\u201c Woody added during that same segment. \u201cHe\u2019s done a hell of a job, and I still think he\u2019s one of the brightest minds that we do have in our game. I\u2019ve always said you don\u2019t let good quarterbacks walk out the building. You just don\u2019t. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can say whatever you want about Sam Darnold at the end of the year. And listen, he finished the year bad, but his body of work should have told you, hey, let\u2019s wind it back. Let\u2019s go back. Let\u2019s do it again one more year\u2014just to see.\u201d<\/p>\n McCarthy had a passer rating of 72.6 with 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 10 games in 2025, per StatMuse<\/a>. As a result, it will be interesting to see whether the Vikings actually stick with McCarthy.<\/p>\n Sam Darnold Played a Major Role in Minnesota\u2019s Decision<\/p>\n Meanwhile, ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes questions the influence that Sam Darnold\u2019s Super Bowl run with the\u00a0Seattle Seahawks<\/a>\u00a0had on the decision to fire Adofo-Mensah, given that the Vikings\u2019 season ended a couple of weeks ago and they held their end-of-season meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m surprised, not surprised by the decision, but surprised by the timing,\u201c\u00a0Kimes said on the Jan. 30 edition of \u201cNFL Live.\u201c<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s shocking here, right? Because Viking season ended weeks ago. They had their meetings back then, sent him to the Senior Bowl. Apparently, the timing makes me think this is reactive to Sam Darnold being in the Super Bowl. It\u2019s hard not to feel that way. Now, as far as whether that\u2019s fair, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Vikings\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Steph Chambers\/Getty Images) With Sam Darnold in the Super Bowl, the topic of the Minnesota…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-726200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-vikings","11":"tag-minnesotavikings","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116006680419182981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}