With no regular-season starting experience in the NFL, it is perfectly fine for people to have concerns about J.J. McCarthy becoming the new Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback this year. But a new report about Aaron Rodgers reveals just how confident the Vikings truly are about having McCarthy be the one to lead them into the future.
On Monday, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer revealed the sales pitch from Rodgers earlier this offseason that Minnesota ultimately decided to turn down.
"[Rodgers] reached out to the Vikings, with the idea of making a one-year run at a Lombardi and tying it to being a willing mentor for McCarthy."
Minnesota Vikings turn down Super Bowl pitch from Aaron Rodgers to roll with J.J. McCarthy
While some might think that Rodgers starting under center would give the Vikings a better chance to win the Super Bowl next season than McCarthy, the team clearly doesn't feel that way.
Minnesota has already invested a significant amount of time and resources in giving McCarthy all the tools he needs to succeed in 2025. Bringing in Rodgers for a one-year experiment could potentially throw all that work with the young signal-caller out the window.
Beyond the depletion of the former New York Jets and Green Bay Packers quarterback's skills in the last few years (28th in the NFL in QBR in 2024), a circus full of unwanted drama has seemed to follow him around recently. That's not something the Vikings want to get in the middle of, especially after watching Rodgers tear apart the Jets from the inside last season.
He probably thought he could use his snake-oil sales skills to easily convince Minnesota to sign him this offseason. But the Vikings are not the Jets, and Minnesota isn't going to risk damaging its future with McCarthy just to give Rodgers another opportunity to find out he's no longer capable of playing at an MVP level.
The Vikings are McCarthy's team for the 2025 season, and if all goes well, they'll be his team for the majority of the next decade.