The Minnesota Vikings got a constructive look at the back end of their roster in Friday’s preseason finale, starting their third-string offense and defense against the Tennessee Titans’ starters.
That meant a lot of reps for rookie quarterback Max Brosmer, and the night off for Sam Howell, Minnesota’s presumptive QB2, who underwhelmed (to put it mildly) in last week’s preseason loss to the Patriots.
Generally, when a veteran player is held out of the preseason finale, his spot on the 53-man roster is safe. But Minnesota’s quarterback situation behind starter J.J. McCarthy has been in flux since March, and it still feels that way with final roster cuts looming on Tuesday afternoon.
Sam Howell might have played his way off the Minnesota Vikings’ 53-man roster after uneven preseason
The main issue with Minnesota’s QB competition this summer… is that it hasn’t been very competitive.
The team passed on adding an established veteran behind McCarthy in free agency, leaving Howell as the second-stringer by default. Brosmer’s been a fun story locally after finishing his college career with the Golden Gophers, but he’s been on the QB3/practice squad borderline since the start of training camp.
That might be changing, however, according to Alec Lewis of The Athletic.
Lewis was down on Howell before Week 1 of the preseason, and he saw enough good things from Brosmer in Friday’s game to project the rookie as Minnesota’s new QB2. In his final 53-man roster projection, Lewis has both Howell and Brett Rypien getting cut, leaving Minnesota with two quarterbacks who are yet to take a real NFL snap.
“Would head coach Kevin O’Connell really be willing to enter the 2025 season without a more proven option? Rypien had an up-and-down performance Friday night. He and Howell were both inconsistent throughout training camp and the preseason.”
Replacing Howell with another veteran at this juncture would be brutal for Minnesota, but that’s the unfortunate reality the team finds itself in. The Vikings could feasibly swing a trade with a team like the Browns for Kenny Pickett, but draft capital has been a premium in recent years. More likely? The Vikings stand pat, let the cut-down process play out across the league, and look to sign or claim a player off another team’s roster. In that case, Brosmer would be kept as either the second- or third-stringer.
It’s not an ideal situation, but this was easy to see coming. Howell is a fifth-round draft pick who’s now on his third new team in four years. He’s still on his original rookie contract. After a strong showing in the preseason opener against the Houston Texans, Howell had a chance to prove himself against a large group of Patriots starters in Week 2; he completed two passes in that game, and one of them was to the wrong team.
It’s still possible that Howell sticks around, but Minnesota will be doing its due diligence regardless. Getting the depth chart right behind McCarthy should have been a priority for the Vikings this offseason, and to this point, they’ve fumbled the ball.