If the 2025 NFL season proved anything, it’s that we should probably be more gracious with quarterbacks.
The success of Sam Darnold with the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and Daniel Jones (before a season-ending injury) with the Indianapolis Colts says as much. Sometimes it takes offensive signal-callers a while to piece it all together while running a cohesive offense.
Unfortunately, this is a grace that the Minnesota Vikings might not extend to second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
According to a report from The Athletic’s Alec Lewis, McCarthy’s 2025 campaign — his first in the NFL — was questionable enough for Minnesota consider all its options this offseason. For a Vikings team that rosters game-breaking weapons like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, that includes the possibility of moving on from McCarthy. Whoa.
One of the more concerning McCarthy notes was how the Vikings pared back their offensive playbook to accommodate McCarthy’s limitations. Namely, they essentially eliminated middle-of-the-field throwing concepts to keep things simple for McCarthy. In the short term, doing such a thing is all well and good, particularly for a young quarterback. Long term, it’s a big no-no. Any NFL offense that can’t throw over the middle of the field is not a serious offense. Stack this on top of McCarthy struggling with basic touch passes, and it feels like McCarthy remains a huge work in progress at the professional level.
With the Vikings recently firing former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the clock seems like it’s ticking in Minnesota to win now. In effect, the Vikings and a still-developing McCarthy might not have time to stay together and make their relationship work.
Applying touch to passes — a pre-draft question the Vikings themselves had — remained a struggle. In 2025, Minnesota also removed most of its over-the-middle passing concepts throughout the season to keep his line of sight as simple as possible.
These limiting factors may not be deal breakers over the long haul. That said, NFL executives and coaches rarely have the benefit of viewing everything in the context of the long haul.
If the Vikings do indeed move on from McCarthy, it would be hard to qualify the move as anything but a disaster. That is, unless the Vikings could find a star quarterback to replace McCarthy, which doesn’t feel particularly likely. Minnesota traded up not once but twice to pick the former Michigan quarterback at No. 10 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. They gave up a first-round pick, a fifth-round pick, and a third and fourth-round draft pick in last year’s 2025 draft.
That’s a lot of draft capital to surrender for a player who might not be on your roster three years later.
If they really don’t believe in McCarthy anymore, I suppose it’d be better that the Vikings rip off the Band-Aid. It’s better to give up on a middling quarterback than to waste his and your time in a “what have you done for me lately?” sports league like the NFL. But the poor optics would be undeniable.
We’ll see how the Vikings proceed with their questionable franchise quarterback in the coming weeks. Their near-future quite literally depends on it.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Vikings may give up on J.J. McCarthy if playbook report means anything
