{"id":811968,"date":"2026-03-14T14:05:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811968\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T14:05:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:05:34","slug":"nfl-insider-minnesota-vikings-havent-given-up-on-jj-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/811968\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL insider: Minnesota Vikings haven’t ‘given up on JJ McCarthy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyler Murray<\/a> is expected to be the Vikings quarterback in 2026. However, that doesn\u2019t mean Minnesota is abandoning JJ McCarthy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

According to NFL insider Jeremy Fowler, the Vikings are holding out hope things may work out between them and McCarthy. Despite adding ready-made starter to the roster, Murray\u2019s signing may not spell the end of McCarthy\u2019s tenure in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me that they\u2019re not having given up on JJ McCarthy. They\u2019re still hopeful there,\u201d Fowler said during SportsCenter on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut, you know how this goes. Sometimes you start seeing other people. It\u2019s probably going to be similar to what the Colts did last year. They get Daniel Jones<\/a> when they had Anthony Richardson<\/a>, they battled it out in camp, and the veteran won the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may not be a hopeful comparison for the former Michigan<\/a> quarterback. Jones took the league by storm before tearing his Achilles down the stretch last season. Richardson played in two games last year and finished with two passes. Though, he suffered a fractured orbital bone in October that kept him on injured reserve until December.<\/p>\n

For Murray, he arrives in Minnesota a bit more established than Jones did when he signed with Indianapolis last offseason. He\u2019s a seven-year NFL veteran who has over 20,000 passing yards and 120 touchdowns on his resume.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is kind of manna from heaven for the Vikings,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cThey get him on the cheap, league minimum $1 million a year because Arizona is paying him all that guaranteed money. He\u2019s got Pro Bowl pedigree. They were looking for a veteran in the room to be established.\u201d<\/p>\n

If McCarthy is able to beat out Murray for the starting job during training camp, it wouldn\u2019t be a very costly issue for the Vikings. Murray signed for the $1 million league minimum because the Arizona Cardinals owe him just over $35 million during the 2026 season. <\/p>\n

Even if McCarthy does lose out on the starting job at first, if things go south with Murray \u2014 he\u2019s only under contract for one season. McCarthy will be entering year three of his four-year rookie contract. <\/p>\n

Still, he\u2019s been injured for most of that time. McCarthy missed his entire rookie season with an injury suffered in the preseason, and only managed to play in 10 games in 2026. Though, Murray only played five games last season after suffering a foot injury as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyler Murray is expected to be the Vikings quarterback in 2026. However, that doesn\u2019t mean Minnesota is abandoning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,71235,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-811968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-j-j-mccarthy-21-img-academy","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-vikings","12":"tag-minnesotavikings","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116227914917154808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811968","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=811968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}