Following the disappointing conclusion of their 2024 season in the wild-card round of the playoffs, most assumed the Minnesota Vikings would spend the next several months preparing J.J. McCarthy to take over as the team's starting quarterback for the 2025 campaign.
Well, these assumptions have been proven to be correct. McCarthy is currently set to step on the field in Week 1 for a Monday night showdown on the road against the Chicago Bears as the Vikings' new starting signal-caller.
Despite the majority being correct with their assumptions, the young passer's journey to becoming Minnesota's No. 1 quarterback didn't come without a few people going out of their way to deliver criticisms of him that weren't based on any facts or truth.
J.J. McCarthy at the center of the Minnesota Vikings weirdest storyline of 2025
Having doubts about McCarthy as an NFL signal-caller is completely fine, and it would actually be pretty odd if everyone believed he was going to immediately be the next Patrick Mahomes.
But there have been some criticisms and "takes" about the young Vikings quarterback this year that have, at times, almost felt personal.
Most of this all really started back in March, when The Athletic's Dianna Russini and Mike Silver published a "bombshell" report about Minnesota having interest in signing longtime Vikings nemesis Aaron Rodgers to be the team's starting signal-caller for the 2025 season.
This report was eventually proven to be incredibly blown out of proportion as Minnesota head coach Kevin O'Connell admitted that any conversation between him and Rodgers was more of a courtesy to hear a friend out and not one that ever reached a point where the team seriously considered signing the former Green Bay Packers and New York Jets quarterback.
After The Athletic's report was proven to be an exaggeration of truth, this led to a multi-month tirade from Russini, Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd, and others about how the Vikings were basically making a mistake by choosing an unproven McCarthy over a washed-up Rodgers.
Throughout the offseason, criticisms ranged from Russini alleging that McCarthy lost weight during the 2024 season because he was struggling with being sidelined and not the fact that he was unable to do a normal workout for multiple months after undergoing knee surgery in August, Cowherd saying he has "a modest arm," he's "marginally athletic," making baseless claims about his stats in college, and raising pointless questions about Minnesota's alleged "interest" in other quarterbacks during the offseason.
With the Vikings doing what they've said they were always going to do and moving forward with McCarthy as their starting quarterback, it has, unsurprisingly, led to some backtracking by both Russini and Cowherd, as both have probably realized how incredibly foolish they've sounded during the last few months.
The unfortunate part about all of this is that if McCarthy goes out and puts together an impressive season in his first year as Minnesota's starter, both will likely attempt to convince their audiences that it's what they expected the entire time from the young signal-caller.