The Minnesota Vikings enter Week 13 carrying a question that has hovered over the franchise since spring and now sits at the center of their season. Why did they ever let Sam Darnold go? The answer feels more complicated by the week, and the consequences seem much clearer for the Vikings .

Darnold returns to Minnesota as Seattle's starting quarterback. It is a matchup wrapped in the feel of a revenge game, even if he will not say it out loud. He helped guide Minnesota to fourteen regular-season wins in 2024, a run that convinced many inside the building that he was worth keeping. The organization chose a different path. It invested heavily in the roster, spent more than any NFC team, and bet its future on rookie J.J. McCarthy.

The returns have not matched the ambition. McCarthy

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