It was learned on Sunday that the Minnesota Vikings have been retaining 2024 first-round draft choose J.J. McCarthy and 25-year-old Max Brosmer of their quarterback room together with fellow backup Carson Wentz and starter Kyler Murray.
Throughout a Sunday look on Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, former NFL participant and present Vikings Audio Community analyst Pete Bercich shared a robust message for McCarthy relating to the signal-caller’s state of affairs.
J.J. McCarthy “needs to be prepared” to doubtlessly change Kyler Murray
“I believe it leaves a whole lot of room for questions as a result of he’s not the starter proper now; Kyler Murray is,” Bercich mentioned about McCarthy, per Eduardo Razo of Heavy. “I’ve mentioned this earlier than: J.J. McCarthy’s life is totally different now. He needs to be prepared. He needs to be able to play No. 2 towards the Green Bay Packers (in Week 1), to leap in there, take that spot after which by no means give it again. So it’s a distinct angle. Gotta get himself again on the sphere.”
Earlier whispers suggested that Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was ready to call McCarthy the crew’s third-choice quarterback behind Wentz and Murray. Nonetheless, Alec Lewis of The Athletic talked about on Sunday that “Minnesota had not finalized who would occupy the” major backup spot as of that point.
“It might be uncommon for the Vikings to proceed with 4 quarterbacks in the course of the 2026 season,” Lewis wrote, “and it’s an open query whether or not they are going to.”
Vikings may nonetheless make main J.J. McCarthy transfer
It is broadly assumed that McCarthy has no worth as a tradeable asset after he spent his complete rookie marketing campaign recovering from a full meniscus repair earlier than he largely didn’t impress throughout 10 starts final season. That mentioned, historical past reveals {that a} crew in want of a signal-caller may take a flier on McCarthy sooner or later earlier than the in-season commerce deadline arrives in November.
For now, McCarthy is on monitor to be with the Vikings after they open the marketing campaign with a house sport towards the rival Packers on Sept. 13.
“We’re one in every of 14 groups within the league that saved 4 quarterbacks,” Bercich continued in the course of the section. “We solely saved eight offensive linemen. And I look again within the final 10 years, and 9 was the bottom variety of linemen that we’ve had. So a whole lot of occasions when you will have gamers that you just actually like, that you just actually assume in case you minimize and put on the market for waivers will get picked up, however you actually need to maintain them, then yeah, you may undergo per week of the season with a decrease quantity at a distinct spot. Because the season goes on, you will have accidents and issues, and you’ll have to make some changes. So does it imply we’ll have 4 all 12 months? I don’t know what their plan is, however I’ve seen it earlier than, and that’s a whole lot of occasions what groups will do to guard the participant that they actually like.”
Whether or not or not McCarthy is the Vikings’ QB2 will say loads about how a lot or how little O’Connell trusts the once-promising prospect to play within the occasion that Murray have been to grow to be unavailable.
