'GMFB' breaks down Vikings QB questions entering 2026
"GMFB" breaks down Minnesota Vikings quarterback questions entering 2026.
Video Transcript
It's time for lead block, and I know Kyle you love a little bit of slow-mo video.
Kyler Murray tossing the, how about this spiral, the strike, not messing, not messing around at all.
JJ McCarthy, Kyler Murray, all of a sudden this quarterback room is gonna be hotly discussed here.
Last, uh, time we were talking about JJ McCarthy with a whole lot of buzz, we got the NFL draft, and last year I was actually fortunate enough to be around.
This team during training camp, we were doing our training camp tour on NFL Network and I just remember the buzz.
Topic of conversation was JJ McCarthy, really a crucial piece inside that division, really in the NFL.
Season obviously didn't go the way I think Viking fans or really that organization was hoping for.
So we get all of a sudden a premier athlete at that position in Kyler Murray.
So what do we make of the Vikings' quarterback situation as it currently stands right now, Mike G?
Yeah, it's , it's gonna be about a, uh, I think slow buildup was what I heard out there in Arizona with regard to Kevin O'Connell.
I had a chance to sit down with, with Kevin and talk to him about Kyler Murray and what he sees in him and why he feels like he fits in the system.
They do feel like he is a good fit in the system for what they're doing.
Uh, so this will be a cup.
Competition and, and JJ McCarthy is gonna be the underdog.
JJ McCarthy is gonna be everybody that wasn't Rory McIlroy, uh, on Friday, uh, Friday evening after down 6 shots.
Who's gonna come?
Who's gonna be the one that makes the run over the week?
Moving day at the Masters as they like to call it.
Um, so JJ McCarthy's got that ahead of him.
It'll be a competition, but we can handicap Kyler Murray as the favorite in this competition, uh, though all the quarterbacks, including Carson Wentz, will get reps throughout the offseason throwing to all of the wide receivers.
So that's the expectation.
It'll be a stop on our tour come training camp, Inside training camp live on NFL Net.
We still doing that?
Yeah, sure, with 57 faces on it.
It'll be great.
We just, we just programmed that for.
All the folks at NFL Network and ESPN.
So inside training camp live, we will be in Minnesota breaking down the quarterback competition and how Kyler Murray is in the pole position.
Have your poll already.
Well, Mike G, let me, let me elaborate on a little bit what you meant by favorite.
Let me tell you the, the challenges that a defense has when going against somebody like a quarterback like Kyler Murray.
There is nothing that frustrates a defensive coordinator or keeps them up as long in the.
Middle of the night than somebody who can scramble like Kyler Murray can.
Number one, it changes your rush plan.
There's a term called stirring up the front that we use on defensive football.
That's, you can't just rush up the field like defensive linemen, you can't just go straight, right?
You have to be able to utilize games, stir up the front, so you, you create a murky front in front of this scrambling quarterback so that you won't have lanes.
Number 2.
If you are a defensive coordinator, you have to be very careful when you call man coverage.
So now you have to be strategic as to how you call plays against somebody like Kyler Murray, because if you are a man coverage, this is what's going to happen.
All the DBs have their head, the back of their heads to the quarterback, and you don't wanna have that happen for somebody like Kyler Murray.
One answer is to utilize a spy, Kyle, put a spy guy on Kyler Murray.
Well.
Now you have a spy on a quarterback and you can't use him to guard one of the receivers that they have and oh by the way, Minnesota has guys like Jordan Addison, Justin Jefferson, Hawkinson, and, and a very good run game.
So when you're talking about Kyler and you're talking about why he is the favorite for Minnesota and for Kevin O'Connell, he is the best pure rusher, uh, rushing quarterback that Kevin has.
Had his entire time as a head coach for the Minnesota Vikings, so you can only assume, Kyle, what this could look like for, for them offensively , and I go back to that, to that, uh, week 18 loss that they had 2 years ago to the Lions where they're just, the Lions were just pressuring Sam Darnold and you're like, if he could just scramble, well now you get Kyler Murray and you can just again assume what that could look like for the Minnesota Vikings in those situations.
There's a cool story that could happen, which is that the quarterback that the Vikings took 10th overall in the draft about 20 minutes ago has a competition with Kyler Murray, and he wins and he perseveres and he digs deep and he finds a new gear and it's JJ McCarthy redemption tour, and I just can't see it.
It's very difficult to see.
I hope that happens because JJ's a likable guy .
You're bringing in Kyler Murray, who is.
Significantly, I think more talented, has a stronger arm, is a wildly different type of runner, is hugely more experienced, and it's like, you know, isn't, isn't a marriage over the second you say let's see other people?
Like has any marriage ever recovered from that, ever, ever in history?
Rory McIlroy's, uh, well, Mike, you might not be wrong on that, but again, that's a prolific talent.
He has, it's, it's a different type of case scenario.
I don't know if JJ McCarthy is Rory McIlroy.
Just due respect.
If you're Kevin O'Connell and everybody likes you and everyone respects you and you said give me Kyler, I wanna work with Kyler, I, I don't see a scenario where JJ McCarthy is starting week one for the Vikings and maybe he'll go on to this great Sam Darnold career and years from now he'll win a Super Bowl.
But listen, Kyler, for all the lossing and losing he did in Arizona and all that, like Kyler is a Ferrari of a talent, like one of the strongest arms in the league, incredible skill set.
Like I, I just cannot see JJ McCarthy head.
Ahead with him beating him.
The only thing he has really in his advantage is he's been in the system, but come on, what are we talking about here?
So I think the second you bring in Kyler Murray, he is the starter.
I think Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson sounds great, it just all sounds great.
It's latest on the situation, my take on the situation.
I don't even know if there is much of a situation other than JJ McCarthy stands there and does the Sam Darnold and watches and learns, and Kyler Murray just.
Throws his talent all over the field and we'll see if they can compete in the North.
I, I think it's pretty cut and dry.
Throws his talent and throws the football too as well, and, and what Manti said is a huge part of this, uh, all the dimensions that he brings, but I think we'd be selling him short if we said that's only what he does, and he's only creating things with his legs.
I, I do know that the Vikings and Kevin O'Connell feel really good about some of the throws that he has made over his career, and he can throw the ball down the field tremendously.
I mean, he's the number one overall pick.
Like we can't forget that part of it.
He's a supremely talented dude, um, and he does it a lot more with his arm than maybe we give him credit for, and some of the throws that he has made in the past, I know that they feel like that fits in well with what we do and what we want to be offensively and what we want our receivers to be, because how frustrating must it have been for Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and all these guys last year that they weren't producing at the kind of level and they weren't completing the kind of passes that they know they're capable of completing as an offense and as a receiving corps.
And, and, and as a coach , uh, who, who dials this stuff up and designs it and calls it on Sundays, it, it, it's, uh, it's gonna be a lot more to that end.
And that's why I think Manti, it was so quick, right?
Like it wasn't like Kyler Murray went on a tour of teams and said, OK, I'm gonna like that this was a marriage that both sides felt really good about and all these other guys were landing places and Kyler hadn't been released and you're like, kind of like Aaron Rodgers coming back to the Steelers.
It's inevitable.
It's gonna happen.
It has to happen.
And that's the reason why they were waiting for it, and it's the most perfect fit, right, Mike G, when you're talking about Kyler going over to Minnesota and all of those weapons that they have over there.
I, I equate it to what happened last year when Devonte Adams went to the Rams.
Like that was just like that's the perfect situation and a perfect, uh , fit for him to have Sean McVeigh as your head coach, to have Matt Stafford as your quarterback, and you have a really good run game.
You have Pukaoku who's a really good compliment complimentary receiver to him.
Uh, uh, again, it's just one of those situations where I, I don't understand how this happens, right?
It's just, it, it's a perfect storm for both guys, for both teams that were looking for an answer, and you understand that, hey, that's, that's the answer.
It's like when you're sitting at the, the gymnasium at, at a school dance, you're like, I wanna go across the gymnasium.
I'm gonna go straight to you.
That's how this happened between Kyler Murray and the Minnesota Vikings, and hopefully they have a great dance in the middle of the gym.
