In some sense, even though it was only his sixth NFL start, Sunday's game against the Green Bay Packers had extra importance for Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Playing well in a critical game against his team's biggest rival would have put a lot of questions to bed.
Instead, though perhaps not all his fault as the Vikings seem ordained to never have their projected starting offensive line together this season, McCarthy regressed in a dismal 23-6 loss to the Packers. The idea of benching him, if only for a game or two, is not ludicrous even if it's not very likely to happen.
In a bigger picture sense, the idea that McCarthy will get on, or even toward, the right track over the rest of the season is fading fast. The Vikings clearly miscalculated how much development he had to do after missing his entire rookie season. Or, in hindsight, maybe they did know, after allowing Carson Wentz to play in a clearly compromised physical state when it seemed McCarthy could have returned from his ankle injury.
NFL insider brings the Minnesota Vikings' J.J. McCarthy situation to its obvious offseason head
ESPN's Dan Graziano started his Week 12 "overreactions" column with the notion that the Vikings will have a new starting quarterback in 2026, tabbing it as "not an overreaction."
"If nothing else, the Vikings will want to bring in a veteran quarterback to add to their young QB room. Think about what the Colts did this offseason, signing Daniel Jones (who, ironically, finished last season with the Vikings) to compete with Anthony Richardson Sr. for the starting job. Jones beat out Richardson, and the Colts are a first-place team."
"Bringing in a veteran doesn't guarantee a similar result, and it's possible that McCarthy could make enough advancements this offseason that he would win a competition against an outside veteran. But unless the final six games of this season look a heck of a lot different from the first six games McCarthy has started, Minnesota is going to have to look at every potential option going into 2026. The Vikings can't throw another season away while waiting for things to click for their 2024 first-round pick."
With every data point you can find to back it up, McCarthy is so far below being a starting-caliber NFL quarterback right now that he's not playable if there were another comfortably viable option to replace him. The viability of undrafted rookie Max Brosmer can be debated back and forth, with the endorsers saying he can't be any worse than McCarthy was on Sunday.
Graziano didn't break any ground to suggest the Vikings are in line to add competition for McCarthy in the offseason. It's now just a matter of who it is and how much of a threat to take the starting job they are, or end up being.