For Minnesota Vikings All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson, the 2025 season has arguably been the most difficult of his young NFL career.
Heading into Week 18, Jefferson still hasn't surpassed 1,000 receiving yards this season, despite appearing in all 16 of the Vikings' matchups. A big reason for his production being lower than normal has had to do with Minnesota featuring some of the worst quarterback play in the entire league throughout the 2025 campaign.
The Vikings were hoping that second-year signal-caller J.J. McCarthy would be able to step in and immediately fill the void under center left by Sam Darnold, but that hasn't happened.
Instead, McCarthy has gone through the typical first-year starter growing pains, and his 2025 performance has been poor enough at times to cause some to already wonder if Minnesota is going to continue with him as its starting signal-caller for next season.
On Thursday, Jefferson was asked if he wants McCarthy to remain the Vikings' starting quarterback for the 2026 campaign, and the superstar wide receiver kept it honest with his answer.
"That's not my job. Of course, I would love for him to be here. Of course, I would love for him to be the quarterback, especially off of this year.
I feel like he needs to show everybody and prove to everybody that he is that top tier quarterback. So I would love to have him and to work with him and show everybody he is that No. 1 guy.
But I feel like it starts in the offseason, working [to build] that connection, and eliminating those habits that he had that we felt that hindered him throughout the season. So, just working on those little bitty bits of his game.
But he's still young. He still has learning to do and growing to do. So that's all part of the game. But it's up to me to require more from him and to work with him more."
It sounds like Justin Jefferson knows something Minnesota Vikings fans don't about J.J. McCarthy
If Jefferson was confident that McCarthy would remain Minnesota's starting quarterback for 2026, wouldn't his comments be more definitive?
It definitely seems like the Vikings' No. 1 wide receiver knows more about the young quarterback's future with the team than the public, and based on his comments on Thursday, he knows that Minnesota is likely going to look for other starting signal-caller options in the upcoming offseason.
No one should be surprised by this, though. The Vikings' roster isn't currently constructed to afford to just sit around and wait for a young quarterback to develop. McCarthy has been one of the worst signal-callers in the NFL this season, and if Minnesota were able to get even just average play from its starting quarterback, they would likely be getting ready for the playoffs right now.
The next few months will probably feature several notable changes for the Vikings, and since he's getting paid $35 million per year, it's safe to say that Jefferson is going to have plenty of input on some of these changes that take place.