The Minnesota Vikings opened OTAs this week, and it came with all of the sights of a spring practice. With the social media team putting out slow-motion clips and other users recycling training camp videos to fool everyone, Vikings fans have worked themselves into a shoot, especially when it comes to the quarterback competition between J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray.
The Vikings added Murray over the offseason as a way to push McCarthy after a rough first season as a starter. While many of the OTAs are relegated to 7-on-7 passing drills, t-shirts, and gym shorts, a big storyline was how McCarthy would react to Murray’s arrival.
When asked by reporters on Wednesday about the current quarterback situation, McCarthy may have given the Vikings exactly what they were hoping for.
“It’s like two guys in a classroom. He sits on one side, and I sit on the other side. It’s the coaches’ responsibility to teach us and coach us.”
Addition of Kyler Murray may have lit a fire under Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy
There’s a long way to go until we know if McCarthy has made strides from his rookie season.
There’s also a good chance that the Vikings have already pre-determined the winner of this competition, as SI’s Albert Breer reported earlier this year that they saw Murray as a potential long-term option at quarterback.
But there’s also the reason behind bringing in an established quarterback like Murray, which may have been to light a fire under their young signal caller.
There’s a perception that McCarthy has been given a lot of things throughout his football career.
He went to IMG Academy, which pumps out talent for high-profile college football programs the same way Shattuck St. Mary’s pumps out NHL players.
When he went to Michigan, he was surrounded by Jim Harbaugh and an elite running game that helped him win a national title.
Even last year, McCarthy didn’t have competition for the starting job as Sam Howell, Max Brosmer, and Carson Wentz handed it to him by default. In a lot of ways, McCarthy has to earn back what he was holding one year ago. And it could be as simple as a path to redemption.
McCarthy’s 2025 season wasn’t just bad. It was embarrassing. His stats (1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns, 12 interceptions) were just part of the story as it seemed like the smallest things created firestorms on social media.
When McCarthy's wife gave birth to their child in Week 2, it was prime fodder for Kevin O’Connell to explain why he wasn’t prepared for his starts.
If McCarthy had a shoelace untied while throwing a pass in practice, O’Connell lamented his fundamentals and the speed of drying concrete.
O’Connell even went to a Minnesota Golden Gophers football game with Max Brosmer, fueling speculation that the Vikings preferred him over McCarthy as the team’s quarterback of the future.
Then, there was the “Nine” meme. Had McCarthy played well, it might have become the official number of the state of Minnesota. Instead, anytime an athlete, celebrity, or popular figure messed up, they were immediately “Nined” by everyone from Minneapolis to Beijing.
Of course, there was more. McCarthy’s defiant Griddy into the end zone triggered O’Connell late in the year, and “the theatrics” of McCarthy pulling himself out of a Week 18 game against the Packers due to a hand injury also didn’t do him a lot of favors.
But that was nothing compared to the final kick in the groin that was bringing in Murray.
McCarthy has been battered and given a bruised ego during his career. Many Vikings fans would have celebrated if their team had pulled the plug and traded him to another team desperate for a quarterback.
There are plenty of reasons for him to believe that his own team doesn’t believe in him, and the biggest question now is what McCarthy is going to do about it.
That gets us back to Wednesday’s comments. If McCarthy told reporters how excited he was to learn from Murray and follow him around the practice facility, it wouldn’t have been a good sign for a player they want to become the leader of the franchise.
In an offseason where ownership has been trying to bring the power of friendship back to the front office, it’s not a bad thing to have someone who is a little pissed off.
In fact, this is something that has been missing from the Vikings arguably since they made the NFC Championship game in 2017.
Every time there’s a minor inconvenience, the Vikings fold like a cheap tent. It’s why they haven’t won a playoff game since 2019 and haven’t made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons since the 2008 and 2009 campaigns.
McCarthy’s comments aren’t suddenly going to make those numbers go away or even transform him into a franchise quarterback.
But for a team expecting a response out of a young quarterback with his back against the wall, his comments could be a step in the right direction and what the Vikings are looking for.
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