In just a few weeks, the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback battle will intensify. J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray will take part in a quarterback competition that has the rest of America watching. The Vikings hope that either quarterback can provide the baseline of play needed to turn their 9-8 campaign from last season into something more. Still, it’s not a bad idea to throw a wild card into the equation.
Enter Brendan Sorsby. A 6’3”, 235 lb. signal caller, Sorsby will be the prize of the NFL’s supplemental draft next month. The only problem is that he comes with a lot of baggage, namely an admission that he placed over 9,000 bets totaling at least $90,000 on collegiate and professional sports over the past four years.
Sorsby’s backstory sounds like Paul Crewe’s in The Longest Yard. But his talent could help a team like the Vikings, who are stuck in quarterback hell and will face a complicated decision about whether to bring him aboard.
If Sorsby hadn’t gambled on games while in college, there’s a chance Vikings fans would have been talking about him next spring. Sorsby began his career at Indiana and transferred to Cincinnati for the 2024 season. Over the next two years, Sorsby threw for 5,613 yards, 45 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions for the Bearcats. He also has some mobility, running for 1,027 yards and 18 touchdowns.
That performance helped him become the top quarterback in the transfer portal this spring and ultimately landed a top-dollar deal at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders will be in the mix to repeat as Big 12 champions. If Sorsby led them in a run through the College Football Playoff, you’re likely talking about a top-10 to -15 pick even if Arch Manning and Dante Moore enter the draft.
In some ways, Sorsby’s sudden availability could give the Vikings a mulligan after missing out on Drake Maye. The New England Patriots quarterback has a similar size (6’4”, 225 lbs.), arm strength, and mobility to Sorsby. O’Connell all but tipped his hand when the Vikings tried to trade up for Maye in the 2024 draft. The New England Patriots ultimately declined a trade down because Maye is a franchise quarterback, and the Vikings eventually settled on trading up for J.J. McCarthy with the 10th-overall pick.
The two situations are not the same for reasons we’ll get to, but taking Sorsby in the supplemental draft feels like cutting out the middle man. Instead of convincing a bad team to trade down when they can draft a good quarterback, the Vikings could submit a second- or third-round bid with the hopes that nobody outbids them. Even in that case, they still have Murray and McCarthy and could maintain their baseline level of quarterback play.
Of course, Sorsby’s gambling is a massive risk. He bet to the point where it became an addiction, and he was also betting on his own team, according to the NCAA’s report. While he didn’t get into a game as a freshman at Indiana, it’s a massive threat to the integrity of the game for a player who touches the ball on every single offensive snap.
The Vikings will need reliable intel on Sorsby. They have two of Sorsby’s former Cincinnati teammates on their roster — rookie linebacker Jake Golday and center Gavin Gerhardt. Still, they may not have known whether Sorsby was making bets with insider knowledge or just firing them off on a lazy Sunday.
Even if it was the latter, the Vikings have to make another investment in the quarterback position if they decide to bid on Sorsby. That isn’t a big thing in most drafts. Still, experts consider the 2027 draft to be deep at all positions, and the Vikings are an old team that isn’t getting much younger.
It’s also notable that new general manager Nolan Teasley wants to build through the draft. If the Vikings lose a second- or third-round pick while taking a flier, it could hurt their chances of landing an impact player on Day 2 next year. While risking a fourth-round pick may not be as bad, another team will likely outbid them.
But the biggest reason they should consider passing is that Minnesota’s quarterback competition has already become a circus. McCarthy playing the hateable heel and Murray playing the role of a football sideshow was entertaining enough. But adding a quarterback who could bet on the outcome of the battle isn’t exactly a great idea, and will bring every national camera into TCO Performance Center to see how the Vikings handle it.
For a team that has been memed constantly over the past year, Sorsby doesn’t seem like a gamble the Vikings are willing to take. But for a team looking to find its franchise quarterback, throwing Sorsby into the fray like the 30th man in a Royal Rumble could have its benefits.
