Vikings Determined Not to Make Same QB Mistakes in 2026
The Minnesota Vikings have just one game left this season, and finishing with a 9-8 record does nothing to overshadow the failure that this year was. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah handed out a boatload of money in free agency in an attempt to provide Kevin O’Connell a win now team.
The problem is that quarterback play sank the team and they have looked like a competent playoff team at no point this season. Despite offering Daniel Jones the most money , or trying to spend short term on Sam Darnold , Minnesota went with J.J. McCarthy and zero backup plan.
Multiple reports have now surfaced to suggest just how problematic that was, is currently viewed, and the organization’s determination to avoid the same fate in 2026.
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Minnesota Vikings failed with JJ McCarthy plan
When the Minnesota Vikings moved on from Kirk Cousins , it was because they wanted to bring in a rookie quarterback, In doing so, they still had quality veteran depth in the form of Sam Darnold. That worked to perfection a season ago .
This time around, poor messaging cost them Daniel Jones, and rolling with Sam Howell as the backup never set them up with a plan for success. Dianni Russini tried to will Aaron Rodgers to the Minnesota Vikings , but she has been plugged in on the situation the entire time. In 2026, The Athletic insider says things won’t be the same.
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy will return to the Minnesota Vikings next season, but that doesn’t guarantee he’ll be the starter. The Vikings were looking for emphatic proof this season that he’s the long-term answer, and because of a series of injuries, they never got it. Over the next few months, sources say, Minnesota plans to explore established options via trade or free agency to strengthen its quarterback room.
Though Minnesota is open to bringing in veteran competition for the 22-year-old, O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have no plans to move on from the quarterback they traded up to draft less than two years ago. McCarthy’s continued development will be a central storyline for the Vikings as they enter an offseason filled with questions surrounding their aging and expensive roster.
Short of a big swing in the form of a Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson trade, it stands to reason that McCarthy isn’t going to be shipped elsewhere. The Minnesota Vikings aren’t going to cut him, and he’s young enough that O’Connell can continue to develop him behind the scenes.
Even while the MN Vikings need to turn over different parts of the roster, they’ll still enter 2026 with intentions of winning it all. It’s not clear that McCarthy is capable of that at this point, and replicating the success of Darnold’s run will require a higher baseline.
Daniel Jones miss stung the MN Vikings
Some of the reason that the Minnesota Vikings are in this position is their own doing. Some of it can be tied to the fact that J.J. McCarthy has consistently been hurt . However, ESPN insider Kevin Seifert gathered enough intel to decipher the Vikings being a bit over their skis in multiple facets when trying to assess their QB situation.
One of the clear takeaways is that Jones’ decision to sign with the Indianapolis Colts upended the Vikings’ plan far more than previously known. There is also widespread agreement that the Vikings overestimated McCarthy’s floor as a first-year starter.
As they did with Darnold, the Vikings envisioned Jones as a starting-caliber hedge against McCarthy’s inexperience and health. Team officials sensed strong positive vibes from Jones throughout the fall and winter, and they believed he would sign their offer, which was competitive with the $14 million deal he ultimately signed with the Colts.
But the Vikings had misread Jones’ level of interest in their scheme and culture. He liked the organization and the people in it, but business was business. A league source said the Colts offered the best “fit.” In other words, Jones wanted to be on the field in 2025 and thought he had a better chance of overtaking the Colts’ young quarterback — third-year pro Anthony Richardson Sr. — than McCarthy.
It has been reported that the Vikings actually offered more money than the Colts $14 million offer. The fit that Seifert highlights though, is the level of commitment to an established starter. Anthony Richardson Sr. had already established tape and didn’t have Indianapolis all in.
The Vikings were clearly reaching when believing that McCarthy not getting live practices all season was going to hold any weight. He went into this year with a clear path to starting, and that level of investment was always asking a lot.
Aaron Rodgers still may right the Vikings wrong
There was never a path for Rodgers to land in Minnesota with the amount of conviction the Vikings clearly had in McCarthy. Now seeing how wrong that has proven to be, at least right now, a one-year deal in 2026 may be just what they need.
The future Hall of Famer was all in on joining the Vikings, and did his own courting. This time around, it will likely need to be the opposite, with Rodgers holding even more of the card.
The Vikings then turned their deliberations to Rodgers, who was a free agent and had contacted O’Connell to express interest in signing with them. There were multiple reasons why the Vikings passed, sources said, but one of them was the front office’s internal assessment that at 41, he was no longer likely to play at a Super Bowl level. Making the playoffs with Rodgers, but not winning the Super Bowl, wasn’t an equitable trade-off for delaying McCarthy’s ascension, they concluded.
Another was the off-schedule nature of Rodgers’ playing style, at times assigning routes to receivers at the line of scrimmage by using hand signals or other means. McCarthy wouldn’t benefit from watching an offense that he would not be asked to run in future years.
Rodgers has gone 9-6 with the Pittsburgh Steelers this season, and their playoff hopes reside in the result of Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens. While he is 42, he has been substantially better than McCarthy in every facet this season, and with lesser weapons than the Minnesota Vikings have, he owns a 23/7 TD/INT ratio.
Minnesota had to make a last-minute pivot to Carson Wentz as a backup plan this season. The longtime veteran is the only quarterback they’ve ran out that actually looked competent. Rather than be reactionary to what should have been right in front of them, the entire process must be flipped on its head in 2026.
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