J.J. McCarthy or Carson Wentz? 👀 Swagu says McCarthy is NOT a championship-caliber QB | NFL Live

Big news of the day, the Bengals trading Joe Flack for Joe Flacco and that means that Cincinnati will have him until Joe Burrow returns from his turfto situation. Uh that leaves Dylan Gabriel and Shador Sanders on the Browns roster. And as for Cleveland and their side of things, Flaco’s departure officially moves QB2 uh Sanders to the QB2 spot. His dad Dion was asked about the trade earlier today. Here’s what he said. wondering what I don’t care. I don’t give a damn about the Browns at all. I care about the Colorado Buffaloos. I do love me some Shor Sanders. Don’t believe that. I care about him. The rest of that me I don’t. Okay. Um I’m a coach trying to win just like they’re trying to win games, but I I could care less of who um they traded. Oh, all right. Well, Washington got Jaden Daniels back from injury and maybe Terry McLaren isn’t far behind. This could be great news. They’re on Monday Night Football next week. Coach Dan Quinn said he was optimistic for McLaren returning to face the Bears on Monday night. The team has gone one and one during McLaren’s time away in Minnesota. Carson Wentz was banged up in the win over the Browns and has a sore left shoulder according to coach Kevin Okonnell. He left the game and came back into the game. Okonnell also said that JJ McCarthy, who has a high ankle sprain, will return to practice this week. So, let’s talk about the Vikings offense. Marcus, how should they approach JJ McCarthy’s return from injury? Boogie, I look I, you know, we talk a lot on this show and we break down a lot of football. I just don’t see how you can go away from Carson Wentz with the success that you’ve had. And I know he had the two interception game, but he show used his legs uh in this last game against Cleveland. Cleveland defense is really good and for this team to be able to pull a win out I think was significant especially with Carson Wentz being that QB. We saw the day that Justin Jefferson had as well and look I know that they drafted JJ McCarthy to be the future of this football team. But I also don’t believe you can watch and think that you have a better opportunity to win with Carson Wentz and just throw caution to the win and put JJ McCarthy back in if he’s not ready. Remember these performances after the Chicago game by JJ McCarthy were not good. This he did not look good. He did not look ready as the quarter as to be the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. I think Kevin O’Connell and this staff has much more to think about than just they took JJ McCarthy in the first round and we reinsert him once he’s ready to go based on what they’ve seen from Carson Wentz. Yeah, that’s a difficult decision and I’m shocked to say that after three or four weeks. It’s really the what do you want versus what do you want right now because you obviously want JJ McCarthy if you’re Minnesota to be the future. But Carson’s played pretty good football and there’s a difference with how they’ve played. Like I think the fundamental question can you can you play faster than you did because that was the big thing for JJ was he just was playing slow and just look at like the the metrics. Carson Wentz plays significantly faster on early downs. He plays relatively faster on third down. He plays significantly faster in their play action game. In the drop back game under center, two seconds faster. And so my thing with um JJ in this situation is like does Minnesota think that those numbers will have been sped up when he’s been rehabbing? You know, it’s not like they gave him a break for three or four weeks. He’s been rehabbing an ankle injury. Did he get did he speed up his pace of play while rehabbing the ankle injury? That’s the question. I think they have to figure out can he speed up his pace of play through playing or is it something that he’s needing that they feel like he has to work out on his own and he this is a young man who spent an entire year not playing. I think he has to play. I think he has to play because you’re not going to give him enough reps. And I would do it for two reasons. One, developmentally it would be helpful. Actually, three reasons. two, you have a coach with absolute job security and Kevin Oonnell. This is not like that we got to win now. Obviously, this is a contender of a team if they get decent quarterback play, but I don’t think there’s that pressure on him. Uh, and then the third thing is I think when he returns to play, the situation is going to be better than what we saw in those two weeks when he did struggle. I think having Addison back, I I was thinking about this watching the Browns is massive. The Brownsuge once, you know, he didn’t play the first quarter. I think he was benched. once he was on the field with him and Jefferson. You saw them playing way more cover two. I think that’s going to open up things for the run game. You’re getting Donovan Jackson back on the interior. We’ll see when Brian O’Neal comes back. Regardless of who’s playing quarterback, I think this is a football team that has to run the ball and run the ball better than they did in the early part of the season. And I think that’s going to happen. To me, it provides a better infrastructure for JJ McCarthy once he does return. It’s also who do they truly believe they can be in December, right? because they might sit there and say Carson’s played well and you can make the case that he’s they’re not winning playoff games. That do they think that they’ll be a better team come that December playoff run after JJ’s maybe had three, four, five, six starts under his belt. He’s got a little bit more of an understanding of the speed of the NFL pass rush and how much faster he has to play. It is a little bit of a dice roll though. It’s not a clear-cut choice. And Marcus, you know, the hard part is like if you don’t play him right now, what are you adding? Another year before he plays again. I mean, you just keep adding time to his time off. No, Dan Amina are is correct. But I also think you tell the rest of this team, and this is how I truly feel, y’all, that if JJ McCarthy is reinserted as the starter, this a litmus test year. This is not a year where we going to compete for a championship. And you got to be very careful not to fracture a lot of guys that may believe they have a better chance with Carson Wentz. It’s not an easy decision at all. And I want to ask you this, Dio. How much of the how much of the rehab of Sam Dorn you think plays into the mentality and the thought process with Kevin O’Connell and this staff, this offensive staff? Yeah, I think that Kevin Oonnell and his offensive staff believe that the parts around the quarterback really are the one of the ma reasons why quarterbacks play well. And so they think a lot of quarterbacks can go and play well there. And that’s probably accurate. And so I think that there’s a reality that okay, Carson Wentz, he’s experienced, he knows a lot of the the NFL game, NFL defense, and so they think they can win a lot with him. I’m curious to hear Marcus say that if they go with JJ McCarthy, it’s not a championship caliber year. I still absolutely believe he’s got to play better and he’s got to play faster. Yeah. But I do think that this is still a championship caliber football team if he gets better, if he plays better. I realize it’s a smallish sample size, but the Vikings have averaged more than nine offensive points per game in W’s three starts than McCarthy’s two. We’re back on NFL Live. Okay, let’s get back to some teams that struggled on Sunday. We do this every Tuesday. We’re going to start with the Giants and talk about what went wrong for them. Jackson Dart said to put the blame on him after the loss. I It’s not good. So, um, got to cut that out. Um, and I think that starts with me just being a leader. I think just in those situations I can, um, you know, just talk to the guys in the huddle and, um, you know, just them about, you know, ball security. So, um, you know, as a quarterback, I put that I put, you know, those on myself. Amina, what went wrong for the Giants? You know, some of these are hard to diagnose. This one isn’t. They turned the ball over on five straight drives. Sllayton fumbled. Dart fumbled. Scatterabo fumbled. Uh, Dart threw an interception that was more of a punt and then he threw another interception. They got to protect the football better. It was a teamwide issue for them. And New Orleans, on the other hand, didn’t turn the ball over. They protected it well. largely that turnover differential is why they won the game and why uh New York lost. Let’s go to Miami next where the Dolphins lost 27 to 24 to the Panthers. Here’s Mike McDaniel after the loss. I thought, you know, we um had a a good plan. Thought we got some stuff fixed. We’ve known the issues we’ve had and we uh we thought that we, you know, were prepared for this and clearly we weren’t. And Dan, what went wrong for the Dolphins tackling? Uh, the fundamentals of their defense broke down. You’re talking about guys getting out of their gap. You’re talking about poor angles, giving up huge explosive runs. It’s the second straight week straight week that this team has come out of halftime, needing a big play and did not get it. And just the tackling and the angles that they played with in the run game were really bad. It was shocking to see that lead evaporate so quickly. and just because they weren’t able to get Carolina’s ball carriers on the ground. Let’s go to Baltimore where it went from bad to worse as they played without Lamar Jackson in much of their starting defense. The Texans beat them 44 to 10. And then there is this. Baltimore has allowed more than 35 points a game this season, already allowing more points this season than the entire 2000 regular season when the team won the Super Bowl. They’ve struggled to stop the run and pass, giving up a league high 13 touchdown passes this season. New on NFL Live, the Ravens making an addition to that defense today. Johny Gardner Johnson will be part of their team. Marcus, this move impact things at all when you look at that Baltimore defense. Uh Boogie, it’s so many issues. What it what it helps with is the injury. Obviously, Kyle Hamilton being out. You got Malachi Starks who’s a a rookie on the back end. So, Chanty Gardner is going to bring some experience. He’s a former Super Bowl champion and plays well. He’s abrasive and I think that’s why he hasn’t stuck with with with teams. But ultimately, the dude has made a tremendous amount of plays in this league and hopefully he can bring his mentality on the field and it can reignite the Ravens in some kind of way. But more importantly, it’s just so many guys down and missing and a safety that has shown to play well was available in the Baltimore Ravens when it made the move. Yeah, that’s interesting. Maybe it does bring a spark to a group that certainly is not at full strength. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On NFL Live, Dan Orlovsky, Mina Kimes and Marcus “Swagu” Spears join Laura Rutledge to discuss some of the biggest storylines in the NFL to include the Cleveland Browns trading QB Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals, how the Minnesota Vikings plan to handle J.J. McCarthy’s return and more.

0:00 Joe Flacco traded to Cincinnati Bengals
1:08 Handling J.J. McCarthy’s return from injury
5:23 J.J. McCarthy’s return signals a “litmus test” year?
7:00 What went wrong for Jaxson Dart & Giants?
8:05 Dolphins’ woes continue for Mike McDaniel
9:00 Ravens going from bad to worse

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23 comments
  1. It is too early for judgment on McCarthy however I am keeping him on the sidelines and rolling with wentz and reevaluating JJ McCarthy in August of 2026

  2. I'm with Swagu, I don't agree at all that J.J. McCarthy has to play right now. I think if you have a good team, as the Vikings do, then you should be playing to win, now. QBs can learn and improve in practice. Jordan Love sat for two years, Aaron Rodgers sat for three. If Carson Wentz is healthy and continues to play well, then I don't think the Vikings HAVE to do anything. The surest way to fracture a locker room and ruin a rookie QB is to insist on playing him when everyone on the team knows the veteran on the bench is better.

  3. If they protect Carson Wentz he is very capable of taking the Vikings all the way. He will just get better as the season progresses.

  4. I believe J.J. Mccarthy is highly overrated. Never proved anything in the NFL. He looked horrible too. Carson Wentz is the seasoned QB. He's still an elite. He's got a bad rap since he left Philly.

  5. Bottom line is this, coaches need to decide if they want to just quit on him now, start Wentz and maybe get to a wildcard this year so their jobs are safe. Or ride it out with McCarthy , take the lumps he most certainly will have because he played so little in 2 years, and see what you have. I know the team went 14-2 last year, but you arent making a superbowl with Wentz, so to me you have to play the 10th pick and evaluate where you are with him come seasons end. Watching the film tells me McCarthy's process is mostly right, he needs to play quicker like they said , but its insane to think he can do that from the bench .

  6. Aaron Rodgers sat down behind Brett fire for 2 to 3 years and look what happened to him. I think every coach in this league every GM in this league and every quarterback coach in this league will tell you that right now today Carson wins is a better quarterback than JJ I’m not saying in three years he would be that and I’m not saying in three years that he won’t be that but right now today, Carson wins is a better NFL ready quarterback today than JJ and you have to play the better player. This is not hard guys. We are in this league to win not to lose to winand Carson gives you the better chance of winning.

  7. I didn’t know the NFL was here to babysit players you guys are baby. In this guy he’s 22. He’s young he’ll be fine. We’re trying to win and you were telling me that Carson could not win a playoff game come on but JJ can Carson should have won a Super Bowl? He should have a Super Bowl on his resume right nowwhen he played with Philly, let’s not forget that.

  8. I’m 64 years old and I’ve been a Viking fan my whole life but Grant Fran Tarkenton playing outside in the cold. If you ask me as a fan, Carson will be my quarterback and he will continue to be my quarterback this year unless he gets hurt JJ should watch and learn from Carson and he’ll be a better quarterback for that and that’s my decision. Let’s play football go Vikings.

  9. As a Viking fan it's a mixture of bad OL play and JJ can't read defenses right now. The thing is our Fanbase is so INVESTED as JJ being our savior that they blame everything bad he does on the OL or KOC play calling. Wentz mess up because a injured OL, it's his fault. It doesn't take a rocket science to see the OL isn't playing so great, just like it doesn't take a rocket science to see JJ can't read defenses either. As long as our OL is playing bad or injured JJ is always going get excuses for playing bad, so why even put him out there? The question shouldn't be if JJ ready put him out there, it should be only put him out there if the OL 100% healthy because to ppl that's the only time he has a chance. Well if Wentz looking better with a injured OL why wouldn't he be the QB that looks better with a 100% healthy one? As a fan I just want the best QB that gives us a chance to win, our Fanbase just want JJ out there even if their logic is bias and full of excuses for ONE QB.

  10. OL is why JJ struggles, but when he comes back in a week or two throw him back out there with the same injured OL. Make it make sense, all ppl going do when he struggles is blame the OL for his flaws of not being ready right now. As a Michigan fan also, I told my fellow Vikings fans JJM needs everything PERFECT around him and a strong running game to win smh

  11. Jj McCarthy is what he is. If you want a lower level starter, then you got your man is he better then Sam darnold no is he better then Carson Wentz no will he win a few games maybe if there bad teams he was drafted too high most to buy Kwesi time played on a great Michigan team never need do much but hand the balk off made a few nice passes in college but you need to do that each drive in the nfl so it's not the end of the world if his not the franchise quarterback so start see what we have I don't care enough way

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