The Minnesota Vikings weren’t boring enough last season.
From a league-worst 30 turnovers to allowing 60 sacks, the Minnesota offense was a constant stream of utter chaos. While a healthy offensive line should settle most of the protection concerns, the Vikings are still working on identifying their quarterback for 2026.
J.J. McCarthy struggled in his first year as a starter and was at the center of many of Minnesota’s ill-fated plays. And while he’s likely improved from the 2025 version of himself, it’s widely expected that newcomer Kyler Murray will take the reins this season.
Kyler Murray is a playmaker. He can do it with his arm and his legs. But it just so happens, actually, that he’s also the hum-drum, boring quarterback that the Vikings need to run their offense.
Pro Football Focus analyzed “zero-graded” throws, or throws that fall right on zero of their two- to minus-two grading scale. PFF describes the throws as unremarkable, saying, “There is no exceptional decision. You won’t see it on a highlights show or the condensed-game replay. A zero-graded throw is the ‘control group’ of quarterback play — simply a quarterback doing his job, making a play that an NFL quarterback would be expected to make.”
In other words, hitting the checkdown, the quick slant, and the bubble screen, all without issue.
There were six total quarterbacks last season with a positive EPA per attempt on zero-graded throws. Murray slotted in at fifth-best, just ahead of Matthew Stafford.
- Josh Allen (0.173)
- Jared Goff (0.090)
- Daniel Jones (0.052)
- Drake Maye (0.046)
- Kyler Murray (0.028)
- Matthew Stafford (0.001)
Meanwhile, Carson Wentz ranked 24th and McCarthy was near the bottom at 35th, both struggling to maintain any sort of efficiency. Murray’s arm talent and scrambling abilities are obvious, but it appears he’s also more than capable of executing the in-between plays.
“Removing the extraordinary,” as PFF described, “leaves a cleaner look at how quarterbacks and offenses operate within the scheme’s structure. It becomes less a study of football’s most unremarkable throws and more a study of efficiency: how consistently quarterbacks execute what’s asked of them, how offenses create production through design, and how those two elements work together to generate successful plays.”
Some of the major concerns with Murray coming to the Vikings were around his ability, or lack thereof, to fit in with Kevin O’Connell’s scheme. With so many splash plays, it’s sometimes easy to forget that Murray is the fifth-most accurate quarterback in NFL history. He was the most accurate on these zero-graded throws last season at 76.9%.
Clearly, the Vikings are hoping to get the best of both worlds, with Murray making the easy throws and running the offense consistently, while sprinkling in some spectacular runs and deep back-shoulder throws. That’s not exactly how things went for Murray in Arizona, but he’s never had a Kevin O’Connell before, either.
Kirk Cousins‘ entire career consisted of making the plays an NFL quarterback is supposed to make. He wasn’t going to take over the game. He wasn’t adding 500 rushing yards on the ground. He simply kept the offense on the field with smart, accurate throws. However, Vikings fans quickly found out that there’s a hard cap on that type of play, and it never translated into deep playoff runs.
Murray can #bringboringback to Minnesota with his Cousins-esque ability to execute the basics, but he also adds an element Kirk never could. He has that X-factor to break a game wide open with a 60-yard rush or a 10-second scramble to hit Justin Jefferson streaking down the sidelines. There’s a reason Murray went first overall in 2019, and the Vikings are hoping to finally justify that honor in Minnesota.
McCarthy, and even Wentz to an extent, couldn’t make the plays they needed to make to keep the chains moving in 2025. McCarthy showed he can occasionally make splash plays, but completing passes at a 57% clip and throwing 12 interceptions in just 10 games wasn’t going to get the job done. That’s not to say he wouldn’t be better in 2026. However, until he shows that he can keep the train rumbling along the tracks, Murray will be conducting this season.
For the Vikings to make the playoffs in 2026, they’ll need to cut down on the turnovers and, more or less, just get back to executing the nitty-gritty, boring details.
The offense under Kyler Murray won’t necessarily be a top-five juggernaut in 2026, but at least it won’t be constantly imploding on itself. And that’s certainly something to celebrate – just keep it quiet and wrapped up by 10 p.m.
