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After a rollercoaster first season as the Minnesota Vikings‘ starting quarterback, the spotlight has stayed firmly on J.J. McCarthy amid ongoing speculation about the team’s direction at the position.
Over the past few days, speculation has started to build around potential quarterback targets following the firing of former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Sam Darnold’s Super Bowl LX victory.
With those developments, many are now wondering whether J.J. McCarthy is truly the answer for a team with playoff and championship expectations. Amid the offseason rumors, former Vikings pass rusher Jared Allen shared his thoughts on McCarthy’s situation.
“I’ll tell you, my biggest question mark right now is can [McCarthy] stay healthy?” Allen said on the Feb. 11 edition of “Up & Adams.” “He had some good games. They go on a four- or five-game win streak at the end. He started playing better football. But in the beginning, you see that fourth-quarter comeback in the Bears, and you’re like, ‘Okay, there’s something there.‘
“Then they get stopped, and then same thing, they have a game where he starts bad and comes back. So I think he has some grit. I think he obviously has some good potential. But you’ve got to stay healthy. You’ve got to stay on the field in this league.”
Jared Allen Understands Urgency Around Minnesota to Win
Moreover, Allen understands the urgency surrounding the Vikings, who are a team looking to win now, with several players like Justin Jefferson in their prime, and Minnesota cannot afford to waste their window.
“From a Vikings fan standpoint, you’re looking at one of the best receiving corps in the league,“ Allen added. “How long can we sustain that? We got a defense that finished the season red hot, but everybody’s getting older. Every year they get older and then those pieces start to fall off.
“If you’re waiting for J.J. to mature by year five, six, seven, all of a sudden, Justin Jefferson is ten, twelve years in. The whole dynamic changes. So I’m not going on fire selling and that kind of stuff, but there’s a lot of questions that are raised. If you can’t stay healthy, you can’t stay the starter.”
Vikings Insider Talks Cardinals QB Kyler Murray
One of the names to emerge in the rumor mill is Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray. There’s speculation that he could be release this offseason and if he is, Minnesota could be an option.
On the Feb. 10 edition of The Alec Lewis Show, Alec Lewis of The Athletic shared his take on Murray and whether the former No. 1 overall pick would be a fit in Minnesota.
“Kyler Murray, for me, just strictly on raw talent alone, he’s probably a notch above Mac [Jones],“ Lewis said. “But you’re dealing with a lot of dynamics with Kyler where, does he see the field maybe as well as Mac? I’m not so sure.
“Is the arm strength comparable to Mac? Probably. He can make more happen with his legs, but he’s had durability concerns himself. Is he as stable in the pocket as a guy like Mac, Kirk Cousins, or Derek Carr? Or even Geno [Smith] maybe? That’s probably a fair question.”
Eduardo Razo Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo
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