With J.J. McCarthy in concussion protocol and having missed team reps on Wednesday, it is looking more and more like Max Brosmer will be starting for the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. In theory, if the Vikings win the rest of their games this season, they could make the playoffs. But with rookie UDFA Max Brosmer starting his first game and the oft-injured McCarthy the worst performing quarterback in the league, the Vikings are looking at next season, not this season.
The Vikings Cannot Count on McCarthy Next Season
Since the Vikings drafted J.J. McCarthy, two things have become clear:
- His performance has been very underwhelming.
- He is not a durable quarterback.
For any NFL player, the best ability is availability- especially as a starting quarterback- and McCarthy has been remarkably fragile. It’s not just that he’s been injured and missed (or will miss) games three times in just seven games (one preseason) it’s also that his injuries have come on unremarkable plays. It’s not like you winced when you re-watch the play he was injured on- which has been a question in itself. It’s more like, “was that enough to have caused the injury?” I believe all three of his injuries were not diagnosed until after the game or the next day. The point here is that regardless of performance, the Vikings cannot count of McCarthy staying healthy for at least 17 games. He has been injured too easily and too often.
In terms of performance, McCarthy is struggling with the basics at this point. He’s had two offseasons to get his footwork and mechanics in order but has yet to do so. At least not in games when it counts. He is a slow processor that holds the ball too long on most pass attempts, and he lacks both accuracy and touch on his passes. Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner evaluated his last game against the Packers and concluded that McCarthy simply isn’t a naturally accurate passer. That’s a pretty brutal assessment. Lastly, McCarthy also appears to have lost his confidence. At the end of the Packers game McCarthy looked noticeably dejected and remained so in the locker room afterward. Some say he’s trying too hard or thinking too much or he’s feeling too much pressure, or more likely all of the above, but that isn’t something that can be cured overnight.
It may be that McCarthy can show he can be a top performing starter next season, despite having one of the worst performances for a quarterback in his rookie season in the Super Bowl era. We’ll see. He’s still under contract next season. But the doubts about both his performance and durability necessitate that the Vikings have another bona fide starter on the roster next season to compete with McCarthy for the starting job and be at least a capable starter if/when McCarthy goes down if he doesn’t win the job outright.
The Vikings Need to See What Brosmer Can Do
At this point it appears that McCarthy will need at least another offseason to fix his issues. Footwork/mechanics, accuracy, processing, developing touch on his passes, regaining confidence. He’s not going to be able to do all that in three practices between games the rest of the season. Certainly McCarthy needs more game experience as well, but given the issues he has right now, he needs to address those first before playing another game. He’s just not at a level where you can expect much success at this point and putting him out there in situations where he is unlikely to succeed may be counterproductive.
Which gets us to Max Brosmer.
Brosmer is a rookie and undrafted free agent looking at his first start in the NFL. Compared to most undrafted quarterbacks, Brosmer has defied expectations by simply making the roster. But getting the opportunity to start a real NFL game is something few undrafted quarterbacks get an opportunity to do. Now let’s see if he can run with it.
Brosmer had a lot more game and passing experience over his six years playing college football than McCarthy had and from his scouting reports and limited preseason action has shown that he may be further ahead with the basics than McCarthy is right now. Looking at Brosmer’s preseason tape, he appears to be a quick processor and gets the ball out fast with a quick release and has been accurate and able to layer throws with touch. He’s known for his football IQ and ability to read defenses, so that should give him an advantage over most rookies in that respect too.
So, if Brosmer is able to show competence with some starter-level ability, then he should be allowed to continue to start the rest of the season.
The reason is that the Vikings need to see if Brosmer could potentially be a starter for the Vikings next season. And that evaluation will inform the Vikings on how aggressive they need to be in finding another potential starter in the offseason, which will likely be an expensive proposition. But Brosmer is on the roster now and maybe, just maybe, he could surprise relative to his draft status. Maybe the chance of Brosmer showing he could be a starter is a small one, and maybe he’s not able to make the most of the opportunity in front of him, but the Vikings should explore him as an option before deciding what they want to do in the offseason.
There are reports of talk within the Vikings organization that Brosmer could be another Brock Purdy, who effectively had the same draft status as Brosmer (Purdy was the last pick in the draft) and Purdy got his first start in week 13 of his rookie year- just as Brosmer is likely to. But whether Brosmer turns out to be another capable starter like Purdy or not, the Vikings need to give him every opportunity to show what he can do over the rest of the season, so long as he shows he is capable and has starter-level qualities. If that proves to be the case, however unlikely, it would save the Vikings a lot of draft capital and/or salary cap next season pursuing an alternative.
We’ll see how it unfolds. The one thing for sure is that Brosmer is likely to have a trial-by-fire, facing a tough Seattle defense in one of the loudest venues in the league. And perhaps without two starting offensive linemen as well.
Stay tuned.
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