Vikings, 2026 NFC North champs? With Kyler Murray, you can bank on it | Opinion

Minnesota has its next QB following Murray's departure from Cardinals. Another successful reclamation project should restore Vikings as contenders.

Kyler Murray and the Minnesota Vikings, 2026 NFC North champions – take it to the bank (but keep it liquid in case an immediate withdrawal becomes necessary).

But the team that helped bring franchise quarterback reclamation projects into vogue appears positioned to cash in again – while merely paying the $1.3 million veteran minimum to Murray while the Arizona Cardinals foot the bill for the remainder of the $36.8 million he’s owed this year – as K1 gets a fresh, optimized QB1 opportunity.

Remember, Minnesota is only 14 months removed from being a 14-win team, one that was on the cusp of winning the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed. (And some visionaries foresaw a level of success for the Vikings in 2024, despite the season-ending knee injury suffered by first-round rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, if not the second-most regular-season wins in franchise history.)

Of course, it didn’t end well, that group of Norsemen – led by breakout quarterback Sam Darnold, who’d broken free of his early career struggles (with very bad teams) – losing the 2024 regular-season finale before being ousted in the playoffs when his protection was overrun by the Los Angeles Rams.

Yet that iteration of the Vikings erroneously thought a loaded roster bubble-wrapped around whomever they put behind center – even while Darnold threw a career-best 35 TD passes on the way to his first Pro Bowl nod – was proof of some concept. So they didn’t bother to build on success at least significantly engendered by a guy embraced in the locker room and didn’t even slap a franchise tag on Darnold, a tack that would have at least given Minnesota more options. And time. Instead, they made a similar mistake to the New York Jets, who drafted Darnold third overall in 2018 … but never sufficiently developed nor supported him and also opted instead to build around Zach Wilson’s rookie QB contract in 2021 − much as the Vikings did with McCarthy. Oops. And oops.