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Many expect Kyler Murray to win the Minnesota Vikings<\/a>\u2018 starting QB job over J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz. Moreover, if that were to happen, the question would be what happens to McCarthy?<\/p>\n With the 2026 NFL Draft approaching and this year\u2019s QB class not being the best after Fernando Mendoza and possibly Ty Simpson, could a team needing a QB come calling the Vikings to ask about McCarthy? <\/p>\n Chip Scoggins from The Minnesota Star Tribune stated whether he believes a McCarthy trade could happen before or at the draft. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are still people who think [a McCarthy trade] is a possibility,\u201d Scoggins said on the April 18 edition of \u201cPurple Daily.\u201d<\/a> \u201cI just don\u2019t see it. That would shock me. I still hear it because of the Carson Wentz signing, that it means J.J. McCarthy is going to get moved.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe I am misinterpreting it and will be proven wrong, but I do not read it that way. The way I read it initially, and still believe, is that [Kevin O\u2019Connell] said they got down to Max Brosmer last year, and he was not ready to play, and they are not going to let that happen again\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cBecause if you were to trade J.J., that would require Kevin O\u2019Connell admitting that they missed on the evaluation before the draft and were not able to develop him.\u201d<\/p>\n Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy Gets Encouraging Words<\/p>\n Minnesota wants to avoid missing the playoffs in the upcoming 2026 NFL season, as its QB play was the main issue last campaign. Ahead of the battle to determine the signal-caller for Week 1, McCarthy received an encouraging message from former Vikings wideout Adam Thielen.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love his mindset,\u201c\u00a0Thielen said on the April 14 edition of the \u201cRoss Tucker Football Podcast.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re around him for a couple of days\u00a0and\u00a0you can feel it.\u00a0I\u00a0was able to work\u00a0with him as a rookie during the offseason when he\u00a0spent time\u00a0in Minnesota, and we got\u00a0the chance\u00a0to throw and work together a bit.<\/p>\n \u201cThen playing with him, you realize he\u2019s just one of those guys. When you\u2019re around him, you can tell he\u2019s a winner. He understands that competitive edge, that chip on his shoulder, and he carries it with him.\u201d<\/p>\n J.J. McCarthy Understands What He Must Improve to Be a Starter<\/p>\n Moreover, Thielen notes that McCarthy knows what he needs to work on to improve and become an NFL starting QB, as he must address his weaknesses if he wants to be the guy who comes out on top in this competition to determine the Week 1 starter.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll be the first to admit there are areas where he needs to improve,\u201c Thielen added. \u201cHe\u2019s a young player, and it\u2019s not hard to understand the challenges he\u2019s faced. Being drafted high comes with big expectations, and then getting injured in your first year makes it even tougher.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re on injured reserve, you\u2019re not around the team in the same way. You\u2019re not practicing, and you\u2019re not getting reps on the field. That\u2019s a lot of missed development time, so he\u2019s had quite a few things working against him.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> 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<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Vikings\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Stephen Maturen\/Getty Images) Many expect Kyler Murray to win the Minnesota Vikings\u2018 starting QB job…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-869489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-vikings","11":"tag-minnesotavikings","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116428201182702811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869489","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=869489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}