{"id":702523,"date":"2026-01-24T22:47:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/702523\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:47:26","slug":"j-j-mccarthy-will-have-to-win-vikings-qb-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/702523\/","title":{"rendered":"J.J. McCarthy will have to win Vikings’ QB job"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was to no one\u2019s surprise that Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O\u2019Connell made it public recently that they intend to bring in a veteran quarterback to compete with third-year QB J.J. McCarthy for the starting job next season.<\/p>\n

That veteran, whoever it is, is expected to be the starter, not McCarthy.<\/p>\n

The reason Daniel Jones signed with the Colts last year rather than re-sign with the Vikings was that he figured he had a better chance of winning the starting job in Indianapolis than he did in beating out McCarthy. Next time, though, McCarthy will have to beat out his competitor, not be handed the starting job.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Who will the competition be? Ex-Viking Kirk Cousins remains a strong possibility, but he wouldn\u2019t come to be the backup.<\/p>\n

The only other option that makes sense is Kyler Murray. The Vikings could aim higher, but teams aren\u2019t going to trade Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson or Justin Herbert. At the least, the Vikings couldn\u2019t afford them.<\/p>\n

\u2014 It\u2019s a good bet the Vikings already have discussed with Justin Jefferson their quarterback plans for next season: Someone who can get him the ball.<\/p>\n

\u2014 There are some technicalities involved in the way Cousins\u2019 contract is structured, but basically the Falcons have to wait until March 12, the first day of free agency, to cut the 37-year-old. That\u2019s probably going to happen, despite the fact that his former Vikings offensive coordinator, Kevin Stefanski, is the new head coach in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

It could cost the Vikings between $15 million and $20 million to sign Cousins, who knows O\u2019Connell\u2019s offense, to a one-year deal. Cousins, by the way, sold his $1.25 million Inver Grove Heights home nearly two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Regarding Murray: If the Cardinals keep the 28-year-old on their roster by mid-March, $20 million of his $27 million contract becomes guaranteed. If Arizona releases Murray, the Cardinals would owe him $36 million next season.
But an interested team could get him for the veteran minimum of $1.2 million as a free agent.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Aaron Rodgers and the Vikings? He had a level of professionalism this season, but at 42 doesn\u2019t have nearly the physical talents he once had. No longer can he get away from the pass rush, and while playing for the Steelers this season, he was constantly trying to get rid of the ball right away so he wouldn\u2019t get hit. Rodgers can\u2019t be ruled out, but it would be hard to imagine he\u2019d be the Vikings\u2019 first choice after being overlooked last year. Rodgers\u2019 hall of fame career probably is over.<\/p>\n

\u2014 What makes Indiana\u2019s national football championship even more amazing is the fact that the Hoosiers won all 16 games apparently without cheating. That\u2019s really hard to do, even now despite NCAA revenue sharing and Name, Image and Likeness (NIL).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a decent bet that Indiana didn\u2019t have as much NCAA revenue sharing and NIL money as the Gophers. The Hoosiers\u2019 quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza who is expected to be the NFL\u2019s No. 1 overall pick in April, was only a two-star recruit out of high school in Miami.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two Indiana players transferred from James Madison University in Virginia. Is there now hope for the Gophers? Minnesota\u2019s problem is that it doesn\u2019t have Hoosiers coach Curt (\u201cI win. Google me.\u201d) Cignetti.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Indiana\u2019s Big Ten football championship this season was its first since tying with the Gophers and Purdue for the title in 1967.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe beat the heck out of Indiana, 33-7 that season,\u201d said Jim Brunzell, a freshman on that Murray Warmath-coached Gophers team.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the Gophers\u2019 prototype quarterback that season, Curt Wilson, died recently.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Last season, Kyle Tucker, 29, hit .266 with 22 home runs and 73 runs batted in for the Chicago Cubs and received a $240 million, four-year free agent deal from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Simley High grad Michael Busch, 28, last season hit .261 with 34 homers and 90 RBIs for the Cubs, but he\u2019s not a free agent and two years away from MLB salary arbitration.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Hall of fame pitcher Bert Blyleven will spend three weeks in spring training with the Twins in Fort Myers, Fla., beginning Feb. 12. He\u2019ll suggest a move for starter Bailey Ober\u2019s slider.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s over on the first base side of the pitching rubber,\u201d Blyleven told the Pioneer Press last week. \u201cIf he moved over to the third base side \u2014 12 to 18 inches over \u2014 his slider\u2019s going to be more attractive to the hitter rather than missing down and away.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, pitching\u2019s always geometry, planes and angles. Over the years, you talk to great hitters, what\u2019s the hardest pitch to hit? It\u2019s a good fastball down and away with something on it. And if you\u2019re over on the first base side (of the rubber), visualize it to a right-handed hitter down and away \u2014 it\u2019s straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what if we move over 18 inches; now that ball\u2019s coming at the hitter down and away at an angle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planes and angles certainly help, but what would also help Ober is a Bert Blyleven curveball, considered the best in baseball history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what, if I were on the first base side, I could not visualize where I was starting my curve ball,\u201d Blyleven added. \u201cEverybody has their different philosophies, but it\u2019s the art of pitching rather than throwing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Wishing the best for Twins 1987 World Series closer Jeff Reardon, 70, who recently underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery.<\/p>\n

\u2014 It looks like ex-Twins infielder Jorge Polanco could be moving to first base for the New York Mets with his new $40 million, two-year contract.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Minneapolis\u2019 Dave Podas, 62, the recently retired head golf professional after 23 years at the opulent Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, is recovering from a home roof fall in Edina that shattered his right elbow. Podus, who is vice chairman of the PGA of America Rules Committee, also teaches at Braemar in Edina.<\/p>\n

Frankie Capan, the North Oaks native, birdied the first two holes of his start at the American Express PGA Tour tournament on Thursday in La Quinta, Calif., but finished the round at one-over-par.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ex-1991 World Series Twins DH-outfielder Chili Davis, 65, these days is retired and playing golf in Arizona.<\/p>\n

\u2014 New GM and chief operating officer at St. Paul\u2019s storied Town and Country Club is Bridget Eckert.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Roger Godin, the superb longtime recently retired Wild curator, on Saturday was to receive the State of Hockey Legacy Award.<\/p>\n

\u2014 St. John\u2019s of Collegeville, Minn. hit a home run last week by eliminating the interim tag and making Dan O\u2019Brien its permanent athletics director.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Gophers men\u2019s hockey team celebrates the 50-year anniversary of its Herb Brooks-coached 1976 NCAA championship team March 6 at Mariucci Arena.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ex-Gophers goaltender Jack LaFontaine of the American Hockey League Coachella Valley Firebirds kicked out 27 shots against the Abbotsford Canucks the other day for a second career shutout.<\/p>\n

\u2014 A true-life national award-winning story by California sports writer Judd Spicer, a St. Thomas Academy grad, on Tracy Drake\u2019s rise from a homeless youth to Division I golfer and Academic All-American has been made into a full-length documentary by Los Angeles production company Hybrid, LLC.<\/p>\n

\u2014 St. Paul civic leader Pat Harris is getting rave reviews for his book, \u201cA Season on the Drink,\u201d an emotionally-moving, true story based on the St. Anthony Residence Softball Club.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 official Minnesota connection has ended with the recent sale of his Medina mansion for $4.75 million. The ex-Timberwolf, now with the New York Knicks, was asking $6.5 million. Towns bought the home in 2020 for $4.52 million.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Recent passings: Yvette Haskins, wife of ex-Gophers men\u2019s basketball coach Clem; longtime retired Vikings ticket manager Harry Randolph; Carolyn Reichow, wife of longtime retired Vikings player personnel director and former St. Thomas Academy-Gophers pitcher Jerry Thomas.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t print that<\/p>\n

\u2014 An educated guess is that the Gophers offered to-be junior Koi Perich from Esko $1 million not to enter the transfer portal for next season. That\u2019s a lot considering the market for a defensive back. It\u2019s also a good guess that Oregon\u2019s offer, which Perich accepted, was substantially more.<\/p>\n

\u2014 A little birdie says Peter Knutson, the Southwest Minnesota State star safety from Sartell who is transferring to the Gophers with two years eligibility left, received a $70,000 NIL stipend with full tuition from Minnesota. He had better offers from other programs, including Iowa State.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ex-Vikings QB Sam Darnold is one victory away from the Super Bowl, which Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf have coveted for 20 years. He became one of just two QBs in NFL history to win 14 games in back-to-back years with two different teams, Minnesota and Seattle. The other? Tom Brady with New England and Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

\u2014 It will be interesting, considering Jordan Addison\u2019s off-field transgressions, whether the Vikings feel they can rely on him enough to extend the wide receiver\u2019s rookie contract. The Vikings aren\u2019t expected to cut Addison, who turns 24 on Tuesday, but an extension is questionable. Remember Koren Robinson, the oft-troubled wideout the Vikings cut in 2006?<\/p>\n

\u2014 By announcing that the Vikings intend to bring in a quarterback to compete with J.J. McCarthy next season, they essentially admitted they messed up last season by not bringing in a reliable QB.<\/p>\n

\u2014 McCarthy was the only NFL quarterback this season to receive a taunting penalty, in the season finale against Green Bay.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Several Vikings, T.J. Hockenson, Aaron Jones and Javon Hargrave among them, will have to take big pay cuts or be cut outright.<\/p>\n

\u2014 It\u2019s unlikely that center Ryan Kelly, 32, who had three separate concussions this season, will return to the Vikings. Meanwhile, don\u2019t be surprised if in the second- or third-round of April\u2019s draft the Vikings choose 6-foot-5, 300-pound Ohio State center Carson Hinzman from Spring Valley, Wis.<\/p>\n

\u2014 There\u2019s whispering that a potential arena site for the Timberwolves and Lynx is the former printing plant of the Star Tribune, owned by Glen Taylor. It\u2019s a big footprint with good access to the freeway in a vibrant part of Minneapolis. Taylor told the Pioneer Press last week his company is hiring brokers seeking potential developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be open to anyone,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Of the Timberwolves\u2019 significant ticket price increases under new owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, Taylor said, \u201cThere are so many \u2018ifs.\u2019 If they win the championship, they\u2019ll probably be OK. But if we settle at where we are now, seventh or eighth place, and we get beat out before we get much further, there are a lot of people who are going to be hesitant to renew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they\u2019ve got to worry about whether they keep their players or don\u2019t keep their players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Minnesota prefers a remodel of Williams Arena to a new arena because the school is geographically landlocked.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Vikings certainly will expect left tackle Christian Darrisaw to play more next season, and they will look for insurance at that position in April\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Vikings, including returning players, signed 15 free agents last year. At nearly $50 million now over the salary cap, they won\u2019t sign nearly as many this year.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Some upper deck tickets with a face value of $100 for the Vikings\u2019 season finale against the Packers in Minneapolis on Jan. 4 were selling for $20.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lane Kiffin, the Bloomington Jefferson grad, gets a $500,000 bonus for Mississippi\u2019s football playoff victory over Georgia even though he didn\u2019t coach the game because he first left for the LSU job.<\/p>\n

\u2014 By being traded from the no-playoff Vikings to the one-playoff game Pittsburgh Steelers, wideout Adam Thielen collects a $53,500 bonus. Thielen, now retired, was the oldest receiver (35) in the NFL this season. He\u2019s expected to join Aaron Rodgers in the annual celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in July.<\/p>\n

\u2014 One private suburban Minneapolis golf club recently notified members that it is planning a greens-and-irrigation project with an assessment of nearly $35,000 per member.<\/p>\n

\u2014 One Gophers coach said his program\u2019s recruiting approach no longer emphasizes high school players over transfer portal players because there\u2019s no longer time in college to develop players. Winning needs to come now, not later.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Class guy: A Tony Oliva fan mailed a baseball to the Bloomington home of the Twins Hall of Famer, asking that he sign it and return it, and included $10 dollars for the effort. Tony, 87, returned the ball signed and the $10.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Although interest in the Twins has waned since last season, it did not during the Twins\u2019 recent fantasy camp in Fort Myers, Fla. There were 130 campers who paid more than $5,000 apiece to participate.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The San Antonio Spurs are playing well, but there\u2019s little doubt that the head coach in waiting is former Cretin-Derham Hall and University of St. Thomas guard Sean Sweeney, 41, recently named associate head coach.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kendall Blue, the former East Ridge and University of St. Thomas basketball star who received a $400,000 NIL deal from Nebraska for his senior season, is averaging 0.6 points and 4.3 minutes in 12 games for the No. 7 Cornhuskers, who won their 20th straight game against the Gophers on Saturday. For the Tommies last season, Blue started all 34 games and averaged 12.3 points.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Stodghill fondly remembers getting his first beer. The Rosemount High graduate was 17 and bat boy for the 1965 Minnesota Twins. Billy Martin was the Twins\u2019 third base coach and in the offseason worked in promotions for Grain Belt beer. Billy gave Stodghill, now 77 and retired in Duluth, a six-pack of Grain Belt and, with a wink, told him the beers were for his parents.<\/p>\n

Overheard<\/p>\n

Terry Kunze, the astute Minnesota basketball icon, on Gophers first-year men\u2019s coach Niko Medved: \u201cI think he\u2019s a great coach. No. 1, he has no players. I mean, they\u2019re players, but they\u2019re not really players. And he\u2019s playing everybody tough. He\u2019s got a tremendous offense \u2014 everybody\u2019s moving. For what he\u2019s got this season, he\u2019s done a helluva job. I think he\u2019s a winner and that he\u2019ll get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MinnesotaMinnesota Gophers defensive back Koi Perich (3) is photographed during the team’s NCAAA football media day in Minneapolis on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (John Autey \/ Pioneer Press)
\n\"MinnesotaMinnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor answer questions during a news conference to introduce Tim Connelly the team’s new President of Basketball Operations at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (John Autey \/ Pioneer Press)
\n\"NikoMinnesota head coach Niko Medved watches play during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Gardner Webb Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr)<\/p>\n

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