{"id":725978,"date":"2026-02-03T10:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/725978\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T10:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:05:15","slug":"pff-labels-the-vikings-qb-situation-heading-into-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/725978\/","title":{"rendered":"PFF labels the Vikings QB situation heading into 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 2, 2026, 10:36 p.m. CT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/minnesota-vikings\/347\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Minnesota Vikings<\/a>\u00a0quarterback situation will be fluid in 2026. The team has J.J. McCarthy with thom they are looking to build with next season, but they need much better insurance behind him to avoid another collapse like the season they just experienced. But it goes beyond finding a veteran to back him up, it also means they have to decide if they are all in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/nfl-ranking-every-nfl-team-quarterback-need\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PFF&#8217;s John Kosko wrote about<\/a> their situation, as well as everyone in the NFL, in his latest piece. For the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/minnesota-vikings\/347\" data-autotag=\"839728ed-97f0-4c7c-9ea6-299b7540514e\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Vikings<\/a>, he discussed their quarterback situation by labeling it as &#8220;Young QB Under Evaluation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Kosko writes, &#8220;If the sample size for (Michael) Penix is small, it\u2019s even smaller for\u00a0J.J. McCarthy, who has just 310 career dropbacks. While no quarterback was memed more in 2025, only one passer \u2014 Matthew Stafford \u2014 posted a higher big-time throw rate than McCarthy. Early returns suggest a Jameis Winston\u2013type profile, but with McCarthy essentially entering his second season as a rookie, the Vikings simply need to see more before making any long-term decision.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">McCarthy could easily be replaced mid-season if the season does not go his way very quickly in 2026. While the exact schedule is not yet determined, if the Bye Week is timed right and they have a veteran behind him they could make the change if he doesn&#8217;t meet the occasion.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 2, 2026, 10:36 p.m. CT The\u00a0Minnesota Vikings\u00a0quarterback situation will be fluid in 2026. The team has J.J.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[95878,7,233,259,2529,6,97234,97235,95882,99759,95927,96194,95988,95896,95888,95895,95899,95883,95881,234],"class_list":["post-725978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflvikings","tag-sstsnvikings","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagjameis-winston","tag-tagmatthew-stafford","tag-tagmichael-penix-jr","tag-tagminnesota-vikings","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}