{"id":989705,"date":"2026-09-02T06:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T06:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/989705\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T06:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T06:30:16","slug":"vikings-insider-gets-real-about-j-j-mccarthys-trade-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/989705\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings Insider Gets Real About J.J. McCarthy\u2019s Trade Value"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/jj-mccarthy-minnesota-vikings_0b1cbe.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"J.J. McCarthy, Minnesota Vikings\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>(Photo by Elsa\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Despite speculation on whether J.J. McCarthy would be part of the 53-man roster for the <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/minnesota-vikings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Vikings<\/a>, the third-year quarterback wasn\u2019t cut or traded and now appears to be QB3. <\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, when it comes to McCarthy\u2019s trade value, The Athletic\u2019s Vikings reporter, Alec Lewis, noted that there are many reasons Minnesota probably didn\u2019t receive an offer worth trading the former first-round pick. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u200bKyle McCord, who was a backup with the Packers, was traded to the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/miami-dolphins\/\" title=\"Miami Dolphins\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"434509\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Dolphins<\/a> for a sixth-round pick,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=92I1D13npvM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lewis said on the Sept. 1 edition of \u201cThe Alec Lewis Show.\u201d<\/a> \u201cHe has more years of control than J.J. McCarthy remaining. He\u2019s also coming at a lower cost than J.J. McCarthy. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cQuinn Ewers is in the same circumstance, where he was traded from Miami to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick. He\u2019s got more years of control than J.J. McCarthy and doesn\u2019t cost as much as J.J. McCarthy. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, part of the impediment, or the barrier, to a trade for the Vikings and J.J. McCarthy is really a twofold proposition. The first fold of it, to stick with that verbiage, is that J.J. McCarthy is owed $5.5 million in guaranteed money over this year and next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>J.J. McCarthy Might Be Too Expensive for Other Teams<\/p>\n<p>Last season as the starter, McCarthy had 310 pass snaps,\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/nfl\/players\/jj-mccarthy\/144918\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">leading to a 61.8 overall PFF grade<\/a>. He also threw for 1,632 passing yards and 11 touchdowns against 12 interceptions, while recording 19 big-time throws and 15 turnover-worthy plays.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his production and the way it looks like the Vikings\u2019 QB depth chart will play out, McCarthy might not be viewed as a backup. As a result, Lewis speculates that McCarthy\u2019s contract would be too rich for a team to take on if he\u2019s going to be a QB2. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[$5.5 million] is backup-level money for a player that I don\u2019t believe many throughout the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/\" title=\"NFL\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"434510\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a> believe is worthy of a backup spot right now. And that\u2019s most likely validated by the Vikings\u2019 choice. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey haven\u2019t made this public at this point to make Carson Wentz the No. 2 behind Kyler Murray. So, to pay a potential QB3 $5.5 million, which is backup-level money, that has dissuaded some teams from being interested in sending extra draft capital to then do that, if that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vikings Don\u2019t Want to Admit Their Mistake<\/p>\n<p>The Vikings may not want to give up on McCarthy, which could explain why they kept him on the roster. However, former\u00a0NFL\u00a0tight end Shannon Sharpe believes there\u2019s another reason for the decision: The Vikings don\u2019t want to admit they made a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll things being equal, they probably kick the tires around and see if somebody was willing to trade for J.J. McCarthy,\u201c\u00a0<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/minnesota-vikings\/jj-mccarthy-decision-verdict-roster-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sharpe said on the Aug. 30 edition of \u201cNightcap.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s what I would have done. The hardest thing, the biggest mistake that I think a lot of teams make, not just in pro sports, but a lot of the time, is they won\u2019t admit I made a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s okay. People make mistakes. You choose the wrong spouse; you choose the wrong girlfriend. You choose the wrong job. They choose the wrong employee. It happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/eddierazo91\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eduardo 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 &amp; 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. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/eddierazo91\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Elsa\/Getty Images) Despite speculation on whether J.J. McCarthy would be part of the 53-man roster&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":989706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[7,233,259,2529,6,234],"class_list":["post-989705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-vikings","tag-football","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117200042603409621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989705","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=989705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}