The Minnesota Vikings' once-magical season was derailed by suffering two straight lopsided losses in an eight-day span, as Sam Darnold's offense failed to reach double digits in defeats at the hands of the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams. Monday night's playoff stumble—and the way the non-competitive game played out—leaves more questions than answers for the franchise.

Darnold is due a significant payday after piloting the Vikings to a 14-3 regular season record and looked awesome through Week 17. They brought in Daniel Jones as an insurance policy and could use him as a bridge. Then there's J.J. McCarthy, the organization's first-round pick from last year who was kept off the field with an injury for the entirety of his rookie campaign.

The ESPN broadcast was left to speculate about the direction Minnesota would go as the rout continued in the fourth quarter and it's sure to be a major topic during the NFL offseason. So everyone now has their antenna up for clues about which way the wind is blowing.

McCarthy ostensibly provided some opaque data point by sending out a message in Latin after the Vikings' season ended.

For those of you not up on lost languages, this roughly translates to "love one's fate" or "love of fate." It's the sort of thing one might expect for someone who served as Jim Harbaugh's most successful Michigan quarterback.

McCarthy also used the phrase in the aftermath of his season-ending injury back on Aug. 13.

So does him busting it out again point to anything or give any insight as it regards to the future of the Vikings' quarterback room? Not without some serious stretching. The thing with "cryptic" messages is that outsiders can bend them to their whim. And this one is special because it can literally be used at any time. Fate is something that's always going on.

The extremely casual take, in plain English, is that a future with Sam Darnold under center does not seem as enticing as it did a few weeks ago. That could move McCarthy closer to the center of the frame and move up timelines. But that may have been the plan all along—to get one good year from Darnold and then move on.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as J.J. McCarthy Posts Two-Word Message Following Vikings' Season-Ending Loss.

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