Sportsnaut
When the offseason started, the idea of Aaron Rodgers signing with the Minnesota Vikings nearly sounded like a joke. After all, here was a player who played for the Vikings’ biggest division rival for the first 18 years of his career.
While Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and Rodgers have a strong mutual respect for one another, making the partnership a real possibility, it never seemed to be in the cards. Yet, as the days went by with the four-time NFL MVP still lingering on the open market, it felt like anything could happen.
But the Vikings didn’t sign Rodgers, instead boosting J.J. McCarthy’s odds of entering Week 1 as Minnesota’s starting quarterback, barring injury. Behind him are Sam Howell and Brett Rypien, who the coaching staff is extremely high on.
So, why didn’t the Vikings express more interest in Rodgers? After all, he signed for a bargain rate of $13.5 million on a contract that maxes out at $19 million.
Yet, as ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler tells it, the Vikings didn’t have interest in Rodgers because they believe the roster they’ve currently constructed, with McCarthy at the helm, opens up a “three-year Super Bowl window.”
Having quarterbacks on rookie contracts certainly allows teams to spend more of their remaining cap space on other talent. We’ve seen examples of that in the past two years in Minnesota, where Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has made several impact free agency signings such as Andrew Van Ginkel, Jonathan Greenard, Aaron Jones, Ryan Kelly, Will Fries, Jonathan Allen, and Javon Hargrave.
While Rodgers wouldn’t have foiled the Vikings’ plans to be big spenders either, the team needs to see what they have in McCarthy. Getting him on the field now and seeing how good he can be gives the Vikings the best odds to win the Super Bowl, even if it’s not in his first season of play.
Related: 2025 NFL QB Rankings: See where Aaron Rodgers and J.J. McCarthy rank
More must-reads:
