A Week 18 matchup against a Green Bay Packers team that was resting a bunch of starters was supposed to be a great opportunity for Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy to deliver one final good performance before an upcoming offseason where his future will be debated daily.
Instead, McCarthy looked like he had for most of the season: uncertain, erratic, inaccurate, and he even had his day come to an end early in the third quarter due to his lingering hand injury.
Despite his struggles, he still did enough on Sunday to help Minnesota leave the field with a win and end its 2025 season with a 9-8 record. However, the victory won't be enough to prevent the Vikings from spending the next few months figuring out how much McCarthy is going to factor into their plans for 2026 and beyond.
Minnesota Vikings end 2025 season with a meaningless win over the Green Bay Packers
When they fell to 4-8 after a 26-0 thrashing by the Seattle Seahawks back in Week 13, a 9-8 finish seemed almost impossible for Minnesota.
But Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell was able to keep his team together and competitive, and it ultimately resulted in Minnesota ending the 2025 campaign with five straight wins, including an especially impressive victory on Christmas Day over the Detroit Lions.
Despite the turnaround and finishing with a winning record, the Vikings are still going home after Sunday, and they won't be taking part in the playoffs for the second time in the last three seasons.
The 2025 campaign began with big-time expectations for Minnesota, and not meeting any of them is a major letdown. Now, the Vikings might even have more questions to answer in the upcoming offseason than they did a year ago at this time.
One thing we do know is that a lot of what Minnesota decides to do during the next few months will be in response to how the team failed to meet its expectations in its first season with McCarthy as its starting quarterback.