The Minnesota Vikings’ 2023 season will come to a close this Sunday in Detroit. Barring a miracle, it will be Minnesota’s last game of the season, given they have a 3% chance of making the playoffs.
This summer will be general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell‘s most crucial offseason yet, mostly due to the questions surrounding the quarterback position. The million-dollar question — or $30 million question — is whether or not Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell will bring back longtime starter Kirk Cousins.
But the Vikings face another potentially more critical decision. They are one of many NFL teams primed to take a quarterback early in the 2024 draft, regardless of the Cousins decision. Minnesota already has many essential pieces to allow a young quarterback to succeed immediately. Plus, if Cousins were to return for a season or two, it would provide any quarterback the Vikings take some valuable time to develop under one of the ultimate pros in the sport.
Monday night’s national championship game will feature two quarterbacks who could be ripe for the taking when the Vikings are on the clock in the first round of April’s draft.
Michael Penix Jr. has led Washington to an impressive 14-0 record during the 2023 season. He threw for over 4,600 yards and 35 touchdowns and only had nine interceptions. Penix and the Huskies will face another quarterback prospect, J.J. McCarthy, and Michigan. While McCarthy’s numbers are modest compared to Penix (2,851 yards, 22 touchdowns, four interceptions), he has displayed many traits that have excited pro scouts.
With the draft quickly approaching, both prospects are surely on Minnesota’s radar. Let’s break down each quarterback ahead of Monday’s college football season finale.
Michael Penix Jr.
Penix has more hype than McCarthy due to an outstanding performance in the College Football Playoff Semifinal game against Texas. He undoubtedly raised his draft stock in what may go down as an all-time quarterback performance in a college football postseason game.
He led the Huskies to 532 yards of offense in a 37-31 win that may have been more convincing if Washington hadn’t gotten conservative at the end of the game, allowing Texas to close the gap. Of those 532 yards, 430 came through the air. Penix also contributed another 31 yards on the ground. He made all the throws he had to, and he did so with arm strength and the perfect touch and timing.
Aside from the impressive game against Texas, Penix has shown that he can be as good from a pure passing standpoint as any member of the 2024 NFL Draft class. More importantly for the Vikings, the types of throws he consistently makes for the Huskies rival Cousins’ throws in O’Connell’s offense. Tight throw to the opposite sideline? Penix can hit it. Window open in a zone defense over the middle? Penix can complete that one, too. How about a fade route down the sideline? Absolutely.
But pundits have expressed uncertainty about other areas of Penix’s draft profile. He is finishing his sixth college football season and second with Washington after the NCAA awarded him a couple of extra seasons of eligibility due to injuries. He’ll be 24 when the 2024 NFL season kicks off, senior to many NFL starting quarterbacks already.
Plus, the injuries themselves are also a concern. He’s suffered a laundry list of severe injuries during his career at Indiana and Washington. It’s a worrisome trend for NFL franchises like the Vikings, who are currently dealing with the ramifications of an injury to the starting quarterback.
If the medical evaluations on Penix are clear, the Vikings should and will have him high on their list during draft season. Despite the age and the injury history, Penix has an NFL arm, not to mention the poise in the pocket and the intangible leadership qualities that have propelled him to play for a national championship on Monday night.
JJ McCarthy
McCarthy will be on the opposite sideline Monday night. Fans and analysts who emphasize a quarterback’s win-loss record will love the true junior, who is 26-1 as a starter at Michigan. His lone loss came last year to TCU in the College Football Playoff semifinal. Also notable? McCarthy is 3-0 in his career against Ohio State.
McCarthy’s semifinal performance wasn’t quite as impressive as Penix’s. However, with the Wolverines down seven with roughly four minutes to go, McCarthy led his team down the field for the tying score. When it was all said and done, he had thrown for 221 yards and three touchdowns to help take down Alabama.
Draft pundits will highlight that Michigan has not asked McCarthy to do nearly as much as other prospects like Penix, Caleb Williams, or Drake Maye. But McCarthy has executed everything the Wolverines have asked him to do with aplomb. He’s been operating a pro-style offense that will allow him to translate smoothly in the NFL.
Like Penix, McCarthy can seemingly make almost any throw. The arm strength is there, and the release is quick, which will benefit him at the next level. However, McCarthy is more comfortable evading pressure and extending plays.
Scouts will have a difficult time evaluating McCarthy. He offers a smaller sample size than Penix or Bo Nix, and that level of uncertainty can be good or bad for a prospect. How would McCarthy handle playing for a team that isn’t completely dominant in all phases of the game? Can he carry a team against an NFL defense if the running game struggles? These are fair questions that don’t have answers at the moment.
Most trusted draft analysts currently have McCarthy as a late first-round pick who could slide into Day 2. However, a terrific performance on Monday night to win a national title would elevate his stock and move him up Minnesota’s draft board.
