Murray, Rodgers 'on the list' to replace McCarthy
Jay Croucher, Connor Rogers, and Matthew Berry wonder how much time J.J. McCarthy has left with the Minnesota Vikings with veteran quarterbacks hitting the market in free agency.
Video Transcript
Another bit of quarterback news.
This centered more around an actual team.
The Vikings plan to sign a veteran quarterback to compete with J.J. McCarthy.
And in the article, Matthew, the last line caught my eye.
In fact, if I had to bet today on starting quarterback for the Vikings in week one of two thousand twenty-six, I would take the field over J.J. McCarthy.
This obviously could be another Kyler Murray destination or an established veteran.
So Matthew, it feels like, and it's not shocking, but it happened fast, things are trending downward for the former top ten overall pick in Minnesota.
Look, we saw what happened on the field last year.
He just, he wasn't good.
He had moments.
He had moments.
He lit up my commanders, but that's not tough.
Everyone lit up my commanders.
Like, he wasn't great.
And what I heard from a source is that last year the Vikings actually had to pare down their playbook because just McCarthy was not grasping the entirety of Kevin O'Connell's offense.
And so they had to pare it down.
And they want to bring in somebody.
I mean, like you heard Vikings front office personnel on the record saying like, you know, hey, we're open to all solutions.
We're looking, you know, we're looking around.
The phrase that was said to me by a source is like, we want somebody to shock J.J. McCarthy.
And by that means like they want to bring somebody into camp.
And I think this is a similar situation to the Colts last year where they had Anthony Richardson, but they didn't want to guarantee him the spot.
They wanted a real competition.
They brought in Daniel Jones who had had success in the NFL.
And ultimately, obviously, Daniel Jones ends up winning that job.
So they want somebody to come into the camp that J.J. McCarthy is going to look at him like, oh, that's not just some camp arm.
That's not Carson Wentz who we know is going to be the backup.
This is somebody that has been a start in the NFL, that has had success as a start in the NFL, and could very well beat me out in camp to be the starter for the Vikings this year.
And so that includes at the high end, the Malik Willis trading for Mac Jones.
But again, if they traded for Mac Jones or they signed Malik Willis, that guy would be the starter.
So I think they're looking at tier below, and that includes Kyler Murray.
That includes Geno Smith that we talked about.
They're very interested in potentially a reunion with Kirk Cousins.
I didn't really hear Tua Tagovailoa's name associated with them, but I do know they like Joe Flacco.
They were very interested in Aaron Rodgers last year.
Kevin O'Connell actually wanted Aaron Rodgers is what I was told.
Kevin O'Connell actually wanted Aaron Rodgers last year, but the entire organization was not on board.
And so obviously they ended up not doing that deal and Rodgers went to the Steelers.
But there's a chance that, you know, that raises its head again as well.
It would have to be an entire team organization to bring in Aaron Rodgers.
But they definitely like him and he's on the list as well.
So a lot of names associated as we just talked about Derek Carr as well.
But like I said, Jay, you tell me you're a betting man.
But if I was a betting man and I am, and if I could, if there was a market out there that I could put some bucks down that said, who's the starting quarterback for the Vikings, J.J. McCarthy or anyone else, give me anyone else.
Yeah.
I like the idea of Kirk Cousins just cycling through different teams that drafted quarterbacks in the twenty twenty-four draft and just being in competitions with them.
Penix on Atlanta, McCarthy in Minnesota.
We can get him to the Broncos next year after Bo Nix has a bad year, et cetera, et cetera.
But I agree.
I think that just all the smoke in Minnesota, just the general vibe around McCarthy and what he showed last year.
I mean, to your point, he had flashes.
He looked good against your commanders, as you said.
I thought he was exceptional against Dallas in that win, albeit the Cowboys had one of the worst defenses in the league.
But yeah, obviously that team is too built to win now.
They have too many veterans on that defense between guys like Van Ginkel and Grenade and then opposite side.
Justin Jefferson can't go through another year like he did last year.
So they can't be in position where they're living and dying with J.J. McCarthy having to hit for the team to be successful.
So there will be a more viable backup or potentially starting option than Carson Wentz last season.
But Connor, my feeling is that this kind of feels like Anthony Richardson going into last year, where perhaps they give J.J. McCarthy a real shot to win out of camp and ultimately that he loses out to the vet Daniel Jones type of option.
That was the first thing that came to mind for me is that it just already is starting to feel like the Colts where you're looking around and going, you know, would they really acquire somebody that would push a quarterback that they invested such a high pick in?
And then you go, well, yeah, I mean, the coach at the end of the day wants to win games.
And if he has an avenue to increasing the floor of the offense, he's going to do that.
And J.J. will probably, and it's another thing you highlighted in the article, Matthew, like J.J. will probably have every shot in camp to continue to develop and show that he is the guy.
But if he does not take the steps they need him to take, Minnesota, the way their roster is constructed, they can't just like sit around and wait for the magic moment because other guys are going to start to age.
And this was a really, really good football team last year that was totally hamstrung by their quarterback.
You can argue that they have the best defensive coordinator in football when he's on his A game.
And I think he's going to get a head coaching job eventually.
So, yeah, they just don't really have the time.
This one, the next one, maybe a shocker to the NFL world.
And the other thing I'll say, Connor, just to wrap that up real quickly, like the guy who, you know, the general manager that drafted J.J. McCarthy is no longer there.
And the guy they released to start J.J. McCarthy just won the Super Bowl.
So like this is pressure on this Vikings organization, especially when you think if you look around the NFC North and you see, you know, the Bears and the Packers both so strong.
We know the Lions will bounce back as well.
So I think it's important for the Vikings, like their time is now.
And we also saw, we heard Justin Jefferson.
You know, we saw Justin Jefferson sort of who never complains.
Justin Jefferson is not a diva wide receiver.
And last year, you know, you start hearing some, you know, some frustration leak out from Justin Jefferson.
And that was one thing that I didn't put in the column, but I will say came up during the combine is, again, that just, you know, the frustration of Justin Jefferson on the offense last year is that's a real thing.
And you if you're somebody as talented as Justin Jefferson, you get it.
