Why Did J.J. McCarthy Opt Out Of The Minnesota Vikings Final Preseason Game?
The Minnesota Vikings were without their former first round pick at quarterback, JJ McCarthy in the team's final preseason game of 2026. Tyler Forness breaks down the multiple reasons as to why that may have been.
Video Transcript
Why would McCarthy say, "I'm not comfortable doing it"?
And Gesling, being the all-star reporter that he is, he's going to be 100% honest with you, but he's also not going to do a ton of speculation, because we know how speculation can run rampant when you're in this industry.
"That could be an- any number of motivations," Gesling said.
"We don't have any way to say definitively what would have led to that decision.
But I mean, Andrew..." Talking to Andrew Kramer, also of the Minnesota Star Tribune.
"You heard it after the game, Kevin O'Connell said, 'We wanted him to start, and we were planning on playing him the whole first half.'
So it, it now means, as Emily just said, he won't have taken any meaningful reps really in the last week of the preseason."
The idea that saying it could be any number of motivations is factually true.
It could be that McCarthy just did not wanna get himself injured anymore.
It also could be that he didn't feel like sticking his neck out for a team that he felt like he, they were done with him.
You could rationalize just about any piece of that pie and say, "Hey, that's why McCarthy did not want to play on Friday night
