Who had the biggest blunder, Vikings or Titans?

I think it's the Titans. They will never get a decent coach again without a massive overhaul.

I think the argument can still be made that Darnold was not absolutely elite and could limit the Vikings' ceiling like Tannehill in Tennessee (or the Texans will have to worry about with Stroud in Houston soon).

There is literally nothing worse than locking in with a QB who won't actually do it. It's the football equivalent of having Carmelo Anthony be your #1 on an NBA team. You will never win it all.

Definitely Titans firing Vrabel. They traded away several of their more talented players, against Vrabel's wishes from what I remember, and then wonder why he had 2 down years in a row. We've seen the last couple of years the impact that coaches have developing players, particularly at QB.

McCarthy vs Darnold certainly looks terrible on the surface this season, but I think over the next 2 seasons we'll see the gap between them close significantly. McCarthy just had his first season as a starter which went badly but has some good plays mixed in.

Darnold was just above average for the year. His lone good year was 2024 which was his 7th season in the NFL, but prior that he had 6 seasons of sub par to bad QB play.

McCarthy
2025: 11TD/12INT, 57.6%, 72.6rtg

Darnold:
2018: 17TD/15INT, 57.7%, 77.6rtg
2019: 19TD/13INT, 61.9%, 84.3rtg
2020: 9TD/11INT, 59.6%, 72.7rtg
2021: 9TD/13INT, 59.9%, 71.9rtg

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Darnold was just above average for the year. His lone good year was 2024 which was his 7th season in the NFL, but prior that he had 6 seasons of sub par to bad QB play

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Darnold 67.7% 4000+ yards 25/14.

I’ll take “average” all day with an elite defense.

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Darnold 67.7% 4000+ yards 25/14.

I’ll take “average” all day with an elite defense

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To be fair I did say "above average".

But if the argument for a QB has to factor in "with an elite defense" then I don't think you're making the argument that you think you are.

But one thing that needs to be taken into account the is their respective contracts. Darnold parlayed his lone very good season in 2024 into a 3yr/$100M contract with $55M guaranteed averaging $33.5M/yr while McCarthy's rookie deal is 4yr/21.8M fully guaranteed averaging $5.4M/yr

To be clear Darnold was definitely the better QB in 25 and probably will be in 26, but beyond that I think they'll be either even or JJ slightly better.

Sam Darnold is only 28. If this has truly clicked for him, then his next three years should be his elite years.

It’s the Titans

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JJM has shown absolutely nothing to state he’ll ever be better than Darnold.

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I'm not white knighting for McCarthy at all, I just think Darnold's 2024 season is the outlier in an otherwise average career.

You seem to have a fairly high opinion of Darnold, so what in Darnold's first season as starter makes you think he's head and shoulders over McCarthy based on what he did this first season as starter? Stats don't tell the entire story but I posted Darnold's first 4 years starting and they were in-line with McCarthy's this year.

Vikings. Because we all know to have success in the NFL you need an elite quarterback and Darnold proved it twice.