2. Approach to the QBs room

When O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah spoke at their respective end-of-season press conferences in January, they mentioned a desire to make the QB room as competitive as possible with the goals of continuing to develop J.J. McCarthy and provide depth behind the player who started his first 10 career games in 2025 but has dealt with multiple injuries in his first two seasons.

The expressed intent has remained the same as Minnesota gears up for the opening of free agency on March 11 and continues preparation for the 2026 NFL Draft (April 23-25).

“The nature of true competition is I think we’re going to try to evaluate all the options that we may have to enhance our quarterback room at the different levels of that, really looking at it from a standpoint of how do we how do we make sure we’re elevating that position through the daily [process], every meeting, every walk-through, every practice, having a competitive environment where I think it’s going to bring out the best of all those players.”

O’Connell noted the traits that McCarthy demonstrated in his first training camp before suffering a torn meniscus in Minnesota’s 2024 preseason opener prompted “positive feelings.”

“There’s been some circumstances that have naturally hurt his chances of having a smooth development phase, but he still has shown a lot of the traits that we feel we can continue to build on,” O’Connell said. “The best way to build on those things is having a daily focus of consistency, of needing to be at your best for the other 10 guys in the huddle, and that’s not to say be perfect, but that is to say daily growth and daily improvement that will inevitably help not only that player reach his ceiling, but our whole team improve because that position has such an impact on it.”

Brzezinski added: “We’re focused on competition in that room like we are in every room.”

The Vikings will work through scenarios that could include returning veteran Carson Wentz, who started five games after joining the team just before the regular season, earlier in the calendar year, signing a veteran free agent or making a trade to acquire a veteran.

Regardless of the approach, Brzezinski said the team has a “ton of confidence” in McCarthy.

“He’s been through a lot of adversity, and guess what? This is a really, really hard job with a lot of pressure,” Brzezinski said. “I think even in our organization and with our history, everybody’s yearning for that young franchise quarterback, and if I can be candid, I’m not sure it’s fair all the time, the pressure and the criticism, because I can tell you, he is a fabulous person. He cares, he works really hard, he wants to be successful and he wants to win.”