Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
Shortly after playing some of the worst quarterback in Minnesota Vikings history on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, JJ McCarthy reported concussion symptoms to the team medical staff, while flying back from cheese country.
As of Tuesday morning, the MN Vikings have yet to make any official decisions on who will play quarterback in Seattle six days from now, when they face their 2024 interim QB turned 2025 MVP candidate, Sam Darnold and his 8-3 Seahawks.
It’s (almost certainly) Max Brosmer season for MN Vikings
But in reality, their choice has already been made, whether they make the announcement today, tomorrow or later in the week. We know head coach Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings medical staff err on the side of caution with most injuries, especially those in between the ears.
Multiple Vikings players have already suffered concussions this season, and every time the player has taken at least one game off, before getting back on the field. And even then, both Ryan Kelly and Jeff Okudah have fallen a second time to head injuries, immediately after returning from their first
So… short of some unforeseen medical miracle, it will be former Minnesota Gophers quarterback Max Brosmer starting under center for the pro team on Sunday in Seattle.
If JJ McCarthy cannot clear through concussion protocol in time, rookie undrafted free-agent QB Max Brosmer would start Sunday vs. Seattle.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 24, 2025
Obviously, it’s difficult seeing JJ McCarthy’s NFL career take another unexpected turn for the worse. For a young quarterback that needs as much development as he does, this is yet another setback that the National Champion out of Michigan could not afford.
On the other side of the coin, however, this is one of those opportunities that young depth QBs only get a few times during their NFL career, if unsuccessful.
The opportunity of a lifetime for Brosmer
But that also means the one-and-done Gopher will (more than likely) get a chance to put himself on the NFL QB map and earn himself a dream job for the foreseeable future.
In his one year as a Minnesota Gopher, following a couple of MVP-caliber seasons at FCS New Hampshire, Max Brosmer threw for 2,828 yards, 18 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, while setting a U of M record for completion percentage, at 66.5%.
If Max Brosmer actually turns into the Brock Purdy to JJ McCarthy’s Trey Lance, I might be insufferable on this app 😂 https://t.co/c7ieeYXytN pic.twitter.com/IVTkvaT68B
— Marcus Whitman (@TFG_Football) November 24, 2025
Even if he proves himself as serviceable and nothing more, Max Brosmer will earn himself a helmet and clipboard on an NFL sideline as a backup QB for the next decade, while he collects tens of millions of dollars in the process.
And if Brosmer is better than serviceable… well, that could set the entire QB plan at TCO Performance Center ablaze. Which brings us to the ultimate question, as we inch closer and closer to Sunday.
With JJ McCarthy under center, the Minnesota Vikings offense was absolutely horrible, inarguably the worst in the league. So is s there any way that a 2025 undrafted free agent quarterback like Brosmer can actually make the MN Vikings offense look better than it did with the 2024 No. 10 overall pick running the show?
Setting expectations for Brosmer as Minnesota Vikings QB1
On its face, the idea itself seems a bit ridiculous. If Max had that type of arm talent, there’s no way he would have made it through seven rounds in last April’s draft right? For those who haven’t followed the one-and-done Gopher’s career the last two years, it’ll be difficult to see past that perfectly rational way of thinking.
Thus, throughout the rest of this week you will hear and read NFL pundits, both national and local, speak with trepidation, when talking about any success that Max Brosmer might experience this weekend at the Cappuccino Capital.
Well, Minnesota sports fam… I am not that pundit. Because I have watched and followed Max Brosmer as closely as anyone outside of a few Gopher football beat reporters. I’ve watched every snap, every press conference, and taken note of any time teammates and/or coaches have talked about the 24-year old out of Roswell, GA.
What do you got for me mister Max Brosmer https://t.co/KIeqFgN840 pic.twitter.com/4AmLFtwGxl
— ethan (@whosethquan) November 24, 2025
Related: NFL Insider Says New QB Coming for MN Vikings
So, with my Max Brosmer credentials now out in the open, let me be the first to say CONFIDENTLY that the Minnesota Vikings offense, with the former Gopher under center, will ABSOLUTELY look like an upgraded version of what it did, while JJ McCarthy was playing quarterback.
How is that possible? Well, let’s start with the premise that Max Brosmer is an undrafted rookie free agent. I said it going into the draft, and I’ve been screaming it from the rooftops since.
New MN Vikings QB NEVER should have gone undrafted
There is no logical explanation for Max going undrafted, something that the rest of the football world is going to start coming to terms with over the next week or two. No, Brosmer won’t blow anyone away with his arm, but it’s more than formidable, even at this level.
Want some more deficiencies? I don’t have any. Seriously, the fact that this kid went undrafted is a crime against football humanity. And that isn’t a new take made in hindsight, either. Here I am back in August, admonishing every NFL general manager that somehow passed on Brosmer during the draft.
If I am an NFL owner, I’m firing everyone in my scouting department who ignored or passed on Max Brosmer during the draft.
With everything teams have at their disposal in 2025, a talented P4 QB should NEVER slip thru the cracks. It’s pure INCOMPETENCE and/or LAZINESS. pic.twitter.com/FFcXOblx0l
— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) August 13, 2025
What I do have is a couple of QB superpowers he possesses, that no matter his draft stock, have made me a staunch believer in Max Brosmer, whose most impressive characteristic his massive football brain and second to none work ethic.
Seriously, the kid — who has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science and plans to pursue a Master’s degree in kinesiology — comes off to everybody who hangs around him as a football genius. Here’s what PJ Fleck said about Brosmer about a year and a half ago, just a few months after he arrived on campus about two years ago.
“I think you start with the intangibles. They’re through the roof. If you look at the the quarterbacks we’ve had a lot of success with, whether Western Michigan or Minnesota, the intangibles go through the roof. And that’s the first thing that you see when you meet him. I think any successful quarterback has to have that piece.
It can’t be all of it because you got to have some skill and some talent and all that other stuff, but the intangibles, you feel like he’s already been here for 30 years. I’ve never seen a person walk into a situation may be probably more uncomfortable of a situation because you’re the new guy and connect as many people as quickly as he has.”
PJ Fleck on Max Brosmer’s arrival at the University of Minnesota – March 24, 2024
It’s stuff like this that convinced the Minnesota Vikings during training camp that they could not afford to cut Max Brosmer, and why they have shuffled the QB room AROUND him all season, no matter how desperate they were for more veteran help.
Because Kevin O’Connell knows what I and a few others know. That Max could very well be the next Brock Purdy.
Why Max Brosmer will look better than other MN Vikings QBs
Where fans will see Max’s big brain in action is with his pre-snap processing abilities, and even more so, with how quickly he goes through his reads/progressions, especially when under pressure, something that will immediately stand out compared to what we saw with McCarthy.
The reason why Minnesota’s offense has been so god-awful this season is because it’s been operated by two quarterbacks who struggle to play on time and in rhythm. KOC designs his offense for the ball to come out in specific windows.
When it doesn’t everything gets thrown off, which is part of the reason why we have seen so many drops already this year. To the untrained eye, some of these butter finger moments are inexcusable.
But to those watching closely, it’s clear the quarterback deserves just as much blame as the receivers dropping his late passes. If there is anything we can expect out of Brosmer this weekend, it’s that he will play on-time and within the rhythm of O’Connell’s offense. Because that is where he excels as a QB.
Every Max Brosmer throw from Vikings’ preseason finale: 15 of 23, 161 yards, 1 TD (and one 40-yard drop).
Impressive stuff from the undrafted rookie. pic.twitter.com/X1prSxbvI9
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) August 23, 2025
Related: Vikings Leave Green Bay Down Two More Linemen
And if Max plays on time, that in and of itself should make the Minnesota Vikings offense at least worth watching, which has not been the case most games this season. Anything above and beyond that, and honestly, I start seriously wondering if JJ McCarthy will ever have a chance to get his job back.
That may sound crazy to those who have not watched Max Brosmer as closely as I have. But really, all the former Gopher — who is two years older than McCarthy and threw double the amount of passes he did in college — has to do to look better than his concussed predecessor is not look like a chicken with his head cut off.
Unlike JJ, Max is Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected. He’s never too high, never too low. There will be no emotional rollercoaster with Brosmer, win or lose. And that is something his teammates will feel in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage.
The football world doesn’t know it yet, but Max Brosmer is the real deal, and everyone who passed on him last April is about to come to that realization too.
So buckle up, MN Vikings fans… because it’s very possible that, after Sunday, we are going to have mass chaos in our favorite football team’s quarterback room.
Mentioned in this article: J.J. McCarthy Max Brosmer
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