A large, or at least vocal, segment of Vikings fans has made itself clear on whether their team should sign Aaron Rodgers. The answer is no, and it’s puzzling.

Look at the Vikings roster and you’ll see a team ready to compete for a Super Bowl at every position but one. J.J. McCarthy might be the team’s quarterback of the future, but why would you trust a rookie who hasn’t played a single NFL regular-season game — and incidentally is coming off a knee injury — to be the final piece?

It makes zero sense.

No rookie quarterback has even started a Super Bowl, let alone won one. Not hall-of-famers such as Joe Montana, Dan Marino or Ken Stabler, and not current NFL superstars such as Pat Mahomes, Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen. And anyone who watched the team fall apart late last season knows the team’s weak link, at that point in the season and against those teams — Detroit and Los Angeles — was Sam Darnold.

Darnold had a terrific regular season, and parlayed that into a big contract with the Seahawks, but he wasn’t up to the challenge when the stakes were higher and opponents were better. He had never been there, and with everything on the line, it showed.

My God, Rodgers would be fun, for all the reasons.

For fans, though, the only one that counts is the football reasons, and the biggest one there is the fact that Rodgers has been to the Super Bowl and won and — this is a two-fold reason — is one of the most exciting quarterbacks to ever play the game.

There are, of course, a lot of ifs about signing Rodgers at this point, and choosing the biggest is difficult.

Is it whether his 41-year-old body can withstand the beating of an NFL season, or whether he would take a pay cut for a last chance at a Super Bowl? Rodgers blew out an Achilles in his first possession with the Jets in 2023 and missed the entire season, and the Vikings aren’t going to pay him more than they would have paid Darnold to stick around another year.

The only reason to sign Rodgers is to have him start, so Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell need to ask themselves if they’re willing to use another season of McCarthy’s rookie contract as an understudy year. One can argue that on a pure football level, they won’t find a better tutor, but it’s also fair to wonder if Rodgers’ odd, and sometimes dangerous, opinions might not fit into what has been a tight locker room.

It’s also difficult to envision, for instance, the Vikings tolerating Rodgers’ regular appearances on the Pat McAfee Show and the weekly drama that comes with it.

This otherwise — cough, cough — seems to line up nicely. The Vikings have everything Rodgers wants, primarily a chance to win, and Rodgers has everything the Vikings want. Further, a one-year deal makes sense for both sides.

This almost worked with Brett Favre, who played for the Jets after making way for Rodgers in Green Bay and had one last great season in Minnesota, taking the Vikings to the NFC Championship, where they were beaten, barely, by a team that paid its players for causing injuries. Favre won more games with the Jets, but was much better statistically and — bonus! — wasn’t caught sending inappropriate texts to a sideline reporter.

Putting Rodgers behind a revamped offensive line to throw to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockinson is not a stupid idea. NFL teams work hard for a chance to win a Super Bowl, and Rodgers would immediately increase the chances of the Vikings getting there for the first time since 1977.

You can’t waste that opportunity. If the price is right, and the terms understood, they should do it.

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