Sep 14, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) speaks with Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell during the first half against the Atlanta Falcons at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images
Entering the 2025 season, the Minnesota Vikings hoped they could repeat last year’s success by replacing Pro Bowler Sam Darnold with sophomore J.J. McCarthy. Growing pains were expected given McCarthy’s inexperience, but probably not to the extent we’ve seen in the first 10 games of the season, of which he played in five.
J.J. McCarthy Ripped by Vikings Legend
On Sunday, a previously struggling McCarthy tried to complete the sweep against the Chicago Bears, and the game looked a lot like his first encounter with the division rivals: He couldn’t move the ball until flipping a switch in the fourth quarter.
Nov 16, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) throws downfield during the second quarter against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
On what could have been a game-winning drive that started with his squad down six points with 194 seconds remaining, McCarthy was sharp, surgically hitting pass after pass, and collecting 76 passing yards and the potential game-winning touchdowns along the way. Jordan Addison was his target in the endzone, and he held on to the ball.
Unfortunately, the Bears had 50 seconds left and a 56-yard kick return set up the game-winning field goal for Chicago.
His final drive certainly deserves praise, but the previous attempts to put up points were flawed. The only other touchdown drive came after a big Myles Price return, followed by two handoffs to Jordan Mason.
His beautiful touchdown throw to Addison earned McCarthy a shoutout on social media by NFL analyst Emmanuel Acho: “J.J McCarthy got that clutch gene!! Struggled all game, but this was nasty!”
Well, Vikings legend and Hall of Famer Cris Carter saw that and shared the post with the words, “Did you watch the first 59 mins ? 👎🏾”
Oct 29, 2000; Tampa, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Minnesota Vikings receiver (80) Cris Carter in action against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Paul Chapman-USA TODAY Sports
The all-time leading receiver in franchise history is not impressed by what he’s seeing from Minnesota’s 22-year-old captain, and he’s not wrong at all. The final drive aside, McCarthy had 74 passing yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions, with only ten of 24 passes completed. His season total has grown to eight interceptions.
McCarthy missed several passes throughout the game. It then didn’t help that his receivers couldn’t provide a spark, as they contributed at least a handful of drops. His inaccuracy remains alarming, either way.
It won’t help him drive his team to victory in Week 1, but the young passer (as usual) said all the right things after the game, “I need to do a better job with my decision-making, the accuracy. It needs to change. I need to be better on doing my job at a higher level.”
The first interception happened on a throw on which he got hit during the release, but there was no way he could’ve gotten the ball to his intended receiver, Justin Jefferson. Veteran Kevin Byard jumped the route on a ball that didn’t have enough heat because of the disrupted follow-through. It shouldn’t have been thrown.
The other one came on a Jordan Addison fade route into the endzone. There was nothing wrong with that decision or the pass, but ex-Vikings corner Nahshon Wright just made a highlight catch that Carter probably enjoyed.
Sep 8, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell talks with quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) during the first half at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images
Those picks happen, but stalled drives because every other pass doesn’t come close to the target are unacceptable. McCarthy said after the game, “I think it’s just growing, at the end of the day. There’s a lot of things that I have to improve on, and accuracy’s one of them. And I promise you I’m gonna wake up tomorrow and get ready to go to get working on that.”
In the third quarter, McCarthy sailed a pass intended for Jefferson on third-and-seven, after another false start made the down unnecessarily hard.
“You just can’t miss those,” McCarthy told the media. “This league is too hard. There’s three or five decisions, plays, that I want back more than anything, and that’s one of them. It’s an opportunistic concept against an opportunistic defense, and I have to deliver. So I put that completely on me, obviously.”
Carter, who attended the game, wasn’t the only unhappy person in the stadium. U.S. Bank Stadium showered the purple squad with boos. About those, McCarthy stated, “We’ve got the greatest fans in the world and they expect a lot more out of us, and rightfully so. I feel like it’s just a reminder to us that we better get going and we better figure this out. Obviously, we don’t got a whole lot of games left, so the urgency is at an all-time high. We just gotta be better for the fans, especially at home.”
McCarthy’s development was paused last year when he suffered his season-ending knee injury in August and this year’s high ankle sprain didn’t help either. At the end of the day, however, he needs to find his groove sooner rather than later, as there have already been questions asked about whether he can make it in the big league or not.
Sep 8, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) reacts after defeating the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images
One thing the Vikings did better on Sunday was using the ground game. Head coach Kevin O’Connell hadn’t done a great job at deploying his running backs, but he certainly did against the Bears. Mason and Aaron Jones combined for 22 carries for 115 yards.
Despite all of that, the offense never got into a rhythm. McCarthy noted, “The way we can operate as an offense when it does look like that is a lot of fun. I just need to do a better job of making sure the rhythm stays there throughout an entire 60 minutes. There’s definitely things that we did well today, but how can we amplify those things and how can we eliminate the mistakes? I take full responsibility for those mistakes, and I gotta make sure we come out tomorrow ready to get better.”
McCarthy will get his next chance to showcase to Carter that he has what it takes next Sunday, when the Vikings run into the Green Bay Packers. Unlike the Vikings, the green rivals are coming off a win, as they escaped Jameis Winston’s starting debut for the New York Giants victorious. The signal-caller should familiarize himself with Micah Parsons.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.