Kyler Murray's arrival completely complicated things for Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy during the offseason, as it immediately raised plenty of questions about the young signal-caller's future with the franchise.
While many questions from Vikings fans since Murray's signing have been about what McCarthy's future looks like in Minnesota, maybe a deeper question should be asked now that the offseason is pretty much done.
ESPN's Dan Graziano recently answered that deeper question that asked "Why didn't the Vikings trade J.J. McCarthy?" and the NFL insider shared that he didn't see why the team should.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense to trade him.
The Vikings have already paid 70% of McCarthy's rookie contract. There's no way they could get anything in return that remotely approaches what they spent in terms of draft capital to acquire him in the first place.
They're less than a year removed from believing he could be their starter, not just now but for years to come.
And it's not like Murray is some automatic fix, either. He has had one fully healthy season in the past five, and the Cardinals are paying him almost $36 million this year to play for another team.
People I've talked to who are close to this situation insist that the Vikings haven't given up on McCarthy -- that part of their hope is bringing in Murray sends some sort of shock to McCarthy's system and gets him refocused on whatever they think he got away from last year.
It's probably a long shot, but again, there doesn't seem to be much they would gain from trading him at this point."
Should the Minnesota Vikings have traded J.J. McCarthy away earlier in the offseason?
Garziano is on point that trading McCarthy doesn't necessarily make sense. Vikings saw him help the team rattle off wins in the final four games of the regular season, and his improvement was evident.
It would be a surprise to see Murray lose the starting job at this point, but he was brought in to push McCarthy to play better on the field. Minnesota wants nothing more than for McCarthy to work out in their favor and still be the franchise's starter for a long time.
Plus, the Vikings need all the depth at quarterback they can get, with McCarthy and Murray both being injury-prone. Minnesota understands this kind of headache after starting three different quarterbacks in 2025.
Until the Vikings can finally have their training camp and go through it, the quarterback position is a mess, but that doesn't mean they just give up on McCarthy after two seasons.
He's got traits that they can work on to make him a better quarterback, so make the 2026 season the make-or-break year for him; hopefully, the third time's the charm for McCarthy.
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