{"id":988699,"date":"2026-09-01T03:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/988699\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T03:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:03:15","slug":"whats-going-on-with-j-j-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/988699\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Going On with J.J. McCarthy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been an eventful month of August for J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings. The month began with a \u2018competition\u2019 for the starting quarterback job with Kyler Murray, in which McCarthy got 50% of the first team reps. The reps quickly shifted toward Kyler Murray and ten days later, following the night training camp practice, Kyler Murray was named the starting quarterback.<\/p>\n

McCarthy reportedly spent much of the offseason working on his mechanics and footwork and improving his game but reports of his mechanics looking better in OTAs soon faded and once training camp got underway, McCarthy looked remarkably similar to 2025 training camp. McCarthy\u2019s preseason action didn\u2019t show any progress either, as inaccuracy and his one-speed passing continued to be a problem.<\/p>\n

So much so that after the second preseason game, speculation about his status as QB2 began to mount, with Carson Wentz being considered the favorite, regardless of position on the depth chart, to come into a game should Kyler Murray suffer an injury. Wentz looked a little smoother and more comfortable running the offense than McCarthy and there was speculation that Vikings head coach Kevin O\u2019Connell may trust Wentz more than McCarthy to run the offense should Murray go down.<\/p>\n

At the same time, speculation mounted that if McCarthy isn\u2019t the backup to Murray, will the Vikings keep him as QB3? That led to some trade speculation as the roster cutdown deadline approached. That week, following the Ravens preseason game, McCarthy suffered what was thought by McCarthy and O\u2019Connell to be a minor ankle injury. McCarthy was asked about it and said he did not expect to miss any games because of it. He practiced twice that week and showed no signs of injury before the Vikings held him out of Wednesday\u2019s practice as a precautionary measure, with Kevin O\u2019Connell saying after the game that he had planned for McCarthy to start and play the first two quarters.<\/p>\n

But when game day arrived, McCarthy apparently told O\u2019Connell that he wasn\u2019t comfortable playing, according to Vikings beat reporter Ben Goessling<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t the team, after consulting their doctors, saying it wasn\u2019t safe for McCarthy to play- he had been cleared to play- it was McCarthy saying he wasn\u2019t comfortable playing and essentially taking himself out of the game plan. That is a key point. And that has led to even more speculation about what McCarthy\u2019s motivation was in taking himself out of the game. After all, this was his last opportunity to play for potentially a year, particularly if he is third on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

There was speculation that McCarthy playing in the final preseason game would be an opportunity for the Vikings to showcase his talents in a trade scenario, but apparently McCarthy was not up for it. One possibility behind McCarthy\u2019s choice is that he doesn\u2019t want to be traded and so not playing the last preseason game takes away an opportunity to showcase his ability to other teams that may be interested in trading for him. The Vikings have reportedly received some trade inquiries that they met \u2018with varying degrees of interest\u2019 suggesting the compensation was short of their hope or expectations. Releasing McCarthy means the Vikings would take on the rest of his rookie contract- around $13 million- in dead cap over the next two years and receive nothing in return. Trading him would result (most likely) in a day three draft pick equivalent (or a player) and about $7 million less in salary cap obligations. So there really isn\u2019t much of a motivation for the Vikings to release him and at least some minor benefits to trading him if they\u2019re convinced his development path is not worth keeping him on the roster at this point.<\/p>\n

But now NFL insider Adam Schefter says<\/a> he believes McCarthy\u2019s ankle injury is a multi-week injury. It\u2019s unclear if that\u2019s just his view or if that was information he got from either the Vikings or the McCarthy camp, but it wouldn\u2019t be the first time that a seemingly minor McCarthy injury stretches into a multi-week one. And if that is the case, that essentially kills any near-term trade scenario involving McCarthy, at least until he is fully healed.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, if McCarthy is indeed sidelined for multiple weeks, that makes Carson Wentz the backup and presumably he\u2019ll be getting those reps in practice rather than McCarthy. This is a critical time for backups to get work and reps and McCarthy apparently has chosen to forego that and put himself in a hole when it comes to competing for the QB2 job. My guess is that if Wentz isn\u2019t already the de facto QB2, regardless of what\u2019s on the depth chart, he will be soon and it will be difficult for McCarthy to climb out of the QB3 hole once the season is underway.<\/p>\n

Looking at all this from McCarthy\u2019s point of view, how does he benefit from not playing the last preseason game and what may be his last opportunity to play in a game until next August, not to mention sabotaging his chances at being QB2 as well?<\/p>\n

One thing I can think of is that McCarthy, perhaps in consultation with his agent, decided not to play in the last preseason game to avoid being traded- potentially to a team he didn\u2019t like. Not playing in that game and now having a minor ankle injury McCarthy himself said would not keep him out of games turn into a multi-week injury according to Adam Schefter, essentially makes it very difficult for the Vikings to trade McCarthy. It also does him no favors in terms of durability\/reliability with the coaching staff. My guess is that there wasn\u2019t much of a trade market for McCarthy to begin with- Will Levis was not claimed on waivers and had better stats than McCarthy and more experience- but McCarthy not playing against the Broncos after a poor game against the Ravens and now yet another injury may have killed whatever market there may have been.<\/p>\n

And that may suit McCarthy. Perhaps the discussion in the McCarthy camp is let\u2019s not make it easier for the Vikings to trade him and force them to release him which new GM Nolan Teasley may be disinclined to do- risking a backlash from the fanbase for getting nothing for McCarthy and probably raising a few eyebrows among ownership as well. Doing so would add almost $4 million to this year\u2019s salary cap in the form of dead cap and offer no salary reduction or trade compensation compared to keeping him on the roster through next season. At that point, after four years in the league, McCarthy would be a free agent and could choose from whatever offers may come his way. But a trade could lead him to a poor situation for the next two seasons. A release now could do the same as he would have to clear waivers before becoming a free agent and any team could claim him.<\/p>\n

Another reason McCarthy may have declined to play in the last preseason game was because he wasn\u2019t confident enough, despite being cleared medically, to play. He doubtless saw the reviews of his performance against the Ravens and perhaps was worried another performance like that would sink his career. Who knows.<\/p>\n

But at this point McCarthy at QB3 seems like a white elephant taking up a roster spot. It\u2019s a sad situation without a good solution. The Vikings can cut bait on McCarthy and release him, which doesn\u2019t do them any good from a salary cap or compensation perspective, to free up a roster spot for a quarterback with more potential, or they can hold on to him for another season, hope he isn\u2019t needed and somehow improves with whatever reps QB3 gets in practice. Neither choice is ideal. Maybe a trade is still somehow possible. But the Vikings and new GM Nolan Teasley will need to decide how valuable McCarthy\u2019s roster spot is to the team, whether McCarthy or someone else maximizes that value, and act accordingly.<\/p>\n

Follow me on X\/Bluesky @wludford<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been an eventful month of August for J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings. The month began with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":988700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,22847,1388,2529,6,234],"class_list":["post-988699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-football","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesota-vikings-preseason","tag-minnesota-vikings-roster","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117193566051082101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988699","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=988699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/988700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}