Months ago, even if they didn't publicly admit it until demoting him to No. 3 on the depth chart, it was clear the Minnesota Vikings were done with J.J. McCarthy. How things would play out in terms of his departure was the only question, and Monday it happened.
According to multiple reports, and confirmed by the Vikings, McCarthy is on his way to the New York Giants for a 2027 fifth-round pick. After playing for Jim Harbaugh at the University of Michigan, McCarthy will now play for John Harbaugh in the Big Apple.
Talk of the Giants as a trade destination for McCarthy gained steam after Jaxson Dart's season-ending ACL tear in Week 2. The Giants were going to acquire a quarterback; it was only a matter of who it was.
The cost to get McCarthy, with the Vikings having zero leverage to ask for anything, had to be appealing in the position the Giants were in. They weren't going to be gouged like the Vikings were in 2016 when Teddy Bridgewater went down late in the preseason.
J.J. McCarthy getting the change of scenery he desperately needed
In the wake of the trade, McCarthy truthers are going to bring back head coach Kevin O'Connell's famous quote about how "organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations."
Along those lines, plenty of nice careers would not have happened if a quarterback had been given up on after just 10 starts.
That narrative leaves out McCarthy's end of the equation. He clearly brought some concerns to the forefront and never fixed a lot of them.
After being told by O'Connell not to do the touchdown celebration he did against the Dallas Cowboys last season, McCarthy admitted he did it because he was told not to.
Beyond that, mechanical issues with playing quarterback, while challenging to fix, never seemed to be fixed. That, to be fair, could be a shared failure by the Vikings' coaches and McCarthy.
McCarthy also told the organization early this offseason, loudly and clearly, how he would handle being the backup quarterback if (or when) Kyler Murray beat him out. That's to say, not very well, in terms of working to help Murray behind the scenes.
It's unclear if McCarthy asked to be traded after losing the starting job to Murray, or after being demoted to QB3 in favor of Carson Wentz. It is possible, though, and the Vikings then ramped up their efforts to move him as much as they could at the time.
It was always likely to take an injury somewhere to realistically push the door open for a McCarthy trade. The Giants aligned better there than other teams that have had their starting quarterback go down early this season, and the buzz about their interest has come to fruition.
If McCarthy is going to last much longer in the NFL, he needs a change of scenery. The Vikings, for their part, made it indirectly clear they would give that to him as long as it made sense for them.
The inevitable divorce has been finalized before the first month of the season is complete, and it's the best thing for both sides.
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