Kevin O’Connell knew that people would have expectations for J.J. McCarthy after the Minnesota Vikings named him their Week 1 starter last season.
“I understand there’s going to be some things that people want to see immediately,” he said after joint practices with the New England Patriots on August 15. “[Some] reactions will be justified because it’s the National Football League and the expectations are on all of us, me included.”
Think about where the Vikings and the Patriots went from there. New England went to the Super Bowl last season, while Minnesota started 4-8 and was eliminated from the playoffs by December. Drake Maye has become a franchise quarterback in Foxborough. Meanwhile, McCarthy suffered myriad injuries, turned the ball over frequently, and occasionally looked muddled.
McCarthy had moments of brilliance. He led the Vikings on a comeback in Chicago, was in control of the offense in Detroit, and had his best game in Week 14 against the Washington Commanders. Still, it wasn’t enough to convince interim GM Rob Brzezinski and Kevin O’Connell to make him the Week 1 starter this season.
A year after Sam Howell was McCarthy’s only camp competition, the Vikings have brought in two-time Pro Bowler Kyler Murray and re-signed Carson Wentz. McCarthy is unlikely to beat out Murray, 28, for the starter’s role. Meanwhile, Wentz looks like the steady backup. Therefore, Minnesota’s quarterback depth looks pretty clear right now.
- Starter: Kyler Murray
- Backup: Carson Wentz
- QB3: J.J. McCarthy
- Practice squad: Max Brosmer
Adding Murray and Wentz pushes McCarthy into the “Daniel Jones developmental role,” while Brosmer remains on the practice squad. Given how the Vikings have constructed their quarterback room, they will likely keep McCarthy on the 53-man roster as the third quarterback. Another team likely would sign McCarthy, the 10th-overall pick in 2024, off Minnesota’s practice squad if they don’t roster him.
O’Connell should be able to build an offense around Kyler Murray. He will likely present him with familiar concepts that manufacture open receivers downfield on his first read. In doing so, O’Connell can take advantage of Murray’s strong, accurate deep ball while reducing the number of times he improvises outside the pocket.
However, Murray has a long injury history and often plays off-schedule. The Vikings may hesitate to let another in-his-prime quarterback walk next year. Still, if Murray can’t stay healthy, or frequently bails on O’Connell’s plays, Minnesota shouldn’t commit to him long-term.
Meanwhile, Carson Wentz should be better able to run Minnesota’s offense in his second year under O’Connell. The Vikings traded Sam Howell and signed Wentz in late August last season. As a result, Wentz had to learn O’Connell’s complicated offense a month before playing in Week 3.
Wentz was still productive, throwing for 1,216 yards in five games. He had Minnesota’s only two 300-yard games last year, and Justin Jefferson averaged 95 yards receiving with Wentz under center. However, turnovers were an issue. Wentz threw six touchdowns and five interceptions in his five starts.
Still, he’s a more productive, steadier backup option to McCarthy. The Vikings could trade McCarthy in an effort to recoup some draft capital after using a top-10 pick on him two years ago. However, that would mean giving in to the sunk-cost fallacy on a 23-year-old quarterback.
More pertinently, the Vikings don’t want to give up on McCarthy, only to see him thrive elsewhere. O’Connell famously said that organizations fail young quarterbacks before they fail organizations.
O’Connell will likely be working under a new general manager this year. Therefore, he wouldn’t want it to look like he failed a young quarterback a year after Sam Darnold won the Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks. At some point, it would look like O’Connell has trouble with talent evaluation at the most important position in football.
Still, would potentially burying McCarthy on the depth chart prevent O’Connell from bringing in more quarterbacks?
He won’t find another former Pro Bowler in his prime like Kyler Murray, and Carson Wentz is a steady backup. But would he consider trading for Anthony Richardson to push McCarthy for the “developmental role,” believing that he can tap into Richardson’s upside?
Richardson is more of a boom-or-bust prospect with elite arm strength and mobility. McCarthy was supposed to be a higher-floor, lower-ceiling prospect. However, after seeing the bottom fall out last year, perhaps they’d rather gamble on Richardson’s upside.
The Vikings didn’t see what they wanted to see from McCarthy immediately last year. Nobody did. As a result, he likely will spend a season developing behind Murray and Wentz. However, at the end of training camp last year, O’Connell said people would also have expectations for him.
It could be a crucial year for O’Connell’s future in Minnesota. Therefore, is he willing to put McCarthy’s roster spot in jeopardy if it means bringing in another young quarterback he felt could become the franchise quarterback the Vikings have been searching for since Fran Tarkenton last donned purple in 1978?
