I have been preaching patience and hoping things would turn around but the snowball is heading down the hill and picking up speed. The QB situation is being debated and talked about all over by many parties. It is hard to really judge JJ McCarthy with so few starts but there is not a lot of positives besides the two game winning drives 4th quarters. He has shown flashes but it seems like he is just not seeing things fast enough which leads him to holding the ball and sacks. This causes some fans to blame the offensive line for some of the sacks. Obviously some of the sacks are on the line and Darrisaw getting beat by Micah Parsons is not a surprise. Parsons is an All Pro and he is going to win many snaps against any tackle.
Maybe sitting for a little while will help him? I’m not sure what they can do besides be patient. That is tough because the majority of fans want to see the team win games and possibly compete for a title. The way they built the roster led me (and plenty of others) to believe the team thought they had a good chance of competing as well.
I was a fan of bringing in a veteran to start while JJ backs him up this year. I did several different offseason plans most of which had the team keeping Darnold or Jones and even one with them signing Rodgers. Those were met with plenty of opposition which was fair at the time. Still, I held firm in the debates because he did not get to even practice last year which shows now.
I do not think it is over for him on his QB journey by any means. It is just going to take more time. The rookie contract thing does not bother me and it is something that many fine folks discuss as being important. It is only good IF you have a rookie QB who is playing well.
As Bum Phillips use to say “We’re in more trouble than a little bit”!
Minnesota Vikings News and Links
“The second half has been one of the worst halves of football I’ve ever watched,” said Davis.
“This is historically bad ball,” agreed Olsen, which came after a third quarter in which the Vikings had -10 net offensive yards.
Olsen was even more pessimistic about the Vikings’ prospects henceforth, noting that the significant amount of money spent by the team on contracts this season and their relatively tight cap space means some difficult decisions could be required in the near future.
He noted that the Vikings’ spending this season is indicative of a team that believes they’re on a major championship run after finishing 14-3 last season, but they now find themselves 4-7 with a game on the road against the surging Seattle Seahawks on the horizon.
“At this moment right now Vikings fans and the front office they have to start asking themselves if this doesn’t get better and we don’t get better offensive production, we are in tough cap situation, these contracts are going to keep holding us down, and we’re just in a bad spot,” said Olsen.
This season was viewed as one of growth and development for the first-time starter, but the Vikings, as they have in the three prior seasons with O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, weren’t going to punt just to focus on development. They made multiple roster moves this offseason, aiming to win now while developing a quarterback. Turns out that wasn’t the case.
We are now six games into the McCarthy era, and it hasn’t looked great. Yes, there was the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears in Week 1, when he threw two touchdowns and ran another en route to an NFC Offensive Player of the Week award. Sure, he threw a dynamite football to Jalen Nailor to seal a victory over the Detroit Lions. Outside of those two games, there hasn’t been a whole lot to be excited about.
That continued on Sunday afternoon, when McCarthy had the worst game of his career. He looked unplayable for the majority of it, throwing for 87 yards and two interceptions, including this ugly one where the ball sailed on him.
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Perhaps a chart comparing him to his contemporaries in terms of efficiency, which is particularly important when discussing the baseline of quarterback play, will help emphasize our current position. Well, he’s the worst in the league.
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It’s also fascinating when you look at things from a surroundings perspective. You can make the argument that no first-year starting quarterback has had better surroundings than McCarthy.
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“It’s frustrating to be up here and say the same things every single week. You say the same things, expecting for something to change, and we’re still in the same spot,” said star wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
At a certain point, it doesn’t matter how much you run a play in practice if you can’t execute it on Sunday.
“I think it’s more a matter of understanding how important each and every single play is,” said right tackle Brian O’Neill in the locker room. “We can run it 100 times [in practice]. But this week, how does that apply? And then, [it’s] understanding what might be asked of you on that play, and how it applies to the defense we’re going to get. What is my exact job on that play, and how do I have the best chance for success on that play?”
The Vikings thought they found their franchise quarterback when they traded up to take McCarthy 10th overall in the 2024 draft. While it’s still too soon to punt on McCarthy, he’s been so bad that it’s possible that the Vikings find themselves in a situation similar to what the Arizona Cardinals were in after taking Josh Rosen 10th overall in the 2018 draft.
As a rookie, Rosen went 3-10 as a starter, completing 55.2% of his passes for 2,278 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. He was sacked 45 times and produced a passer rating of 66.7 and a QBR of 24.1.
Arizona had sufficient evidence to move on from Rosen, and they selected Kyler Murray with the first overall pick in the 2018 draft, and then traded Rosen to the Dolphins for a 2019 second-round pick and a 2020 fifth-round pick.
McCarthy is 2-4 as a starter. He’s completed 54.1% of his passes for 929 yards, six touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He’s been sacked 21 times while posting a passer rating of 57.9 and a QBR of 24.8. His numbers are terrifyingly similar to Rosen’s from 2018, though McCarthy is being intercepted at a more alarming rate.
Instead, it’s been an abject disaster. J.J. McCarthy getting off to one of the worst six-game starts ever by a quarterback is the leading problem, but it’s not the only one. The free agency haul has been a disappointment. The defense doesn’t force takeaways. Special teams mistakes have been extremely costly. Everything has spiraled, especially McCarthy, during a three-game losing streak that’s dropped the Vikings to 4-7 and knocked them completely out of playoff contention. The nadir — at least for now — was reached in Sunday’s embarrassment of a performance in Green Bay.
Someone is inevitably going to take the fall for this. Perhaps multiple someones. And while we’re not going to call for anyone’s job in this space, what we can do is speculate about the logical candidates to pay the price for this smoldering mess of a season.
The most obvious person who might lose their job, in a sense, is McCarthy. He’s played so historically poorly through six games that this may just be a Josh Rosen situation where he doesn’t even get a second season as the starting quarterback. There’s still time for that to change, and McCarthy will certainly be under contract and on the roster next year no matter what. But if his production doesn’t improve over the final six weeks, there’s a real chance he’s not the Week 1 starter in 2026.
I’m not sure that can be said with nearly the same level of confidence about general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. He also just received a contract extension this offseason, but it didn’t happen as promptly as it did for O’Connell, nor does it guarantee job security. Even without giving any of the blame for the McCarthy pick to Adofo-Mensah — if you assume O’Connell was the driving force behind that decision — there are a lot of areas where the GM can be criticized.
Adofo-Mensah’s drafting remains a serious question mark, even if his recent non-McCarthy first-round picks (Jordan Addison, Dallas Turner, Donovan Jackson) mostly look good. His 2024 free agent haul (Sam Darnold, Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman) was incredible. This year’s group (Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave, Will Fries, Ryan Kelly) has been extraordinarily underwhelming. Re-signing Byron Murphy Jr. can be included in that. The best free agent signing the Vikings made this offseason was pretty clearly Eric Wilson on a one-year, $2.6 million deal.
The list of roster-building misses doesn’t end there. Trading real draft capital for Adam Thielen, even if it may have made sense at the time, will go down as a major whiff. Contract extensions for T.J. Hockenson and Josh Metellus have aged poorly this season. Having Sam Howell as McCarthy’s only offseason competition doesn’t make any sense in hindsight.
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On the coaching staff, the person whose seat would seem to be the hottest is special teams coordinator Matt Daniels. Myles Price’s punt return fumble gaffe at Lambeau Field marked three consecutive weeks where a special teams mistake has been one of the crucial, game-swinging plays in a Vikings loss. At some point, that probably has to fall on the coach responsible for that phase.
An argument can definitely be made in defense of Daniels. He’s working with a lot of young players, many of them undrafted rookies, due to the way the Vikings’ roster is constructed. When Price makes rookie mistakes like not getting out of the way of a bouncing punt or fumbling a kickoff return, it’s hard to know how much blame Daniels deserves. Is it his fault that players vacated their lanes on the Bears’ critical kick return? The excellent play of kicker Will Reichard and punter Ryan Wright is a feather in Daniels’ cap.
Per Adam Patrick of The Vikings Age, Vikings safety Josh Metellus came to the defense of J.J. McCarthy.
“I ain’t going to lie, I think [No.] 9 is playing great. When you don’t play as a full team and we don’t give each other a chance to win, quarterbacks get the blame. Just like DBs get the blame when some run pops off, we miss a tackle, and it goes for [a long gain].
It’s never [just] one guy.”
Metellus elaborated further:
“In terms of his ability to grow and develop, we’re talking about a guy who’s had six starts? I think he’s playing really well. I know he’s going to keep getting better. I know the kind of guy he is. Shout out to J.J. for being able to step in and just keep going and ignore the noise.
I don’t know too much [about] what’s going on, but I know it’s not just a QB problem. It’s an all-11 problem. Whenever we’re all on the field, we all have to play as one.”
Kinda Sorta Early Off Season Q&D
Cap Space Work
Carry over cap space : $14,612,211
Starting 2026 Cap space : ($37,058,572) note: carry over cap space not included here
Release or Trade O’Neill saves 19.5M in cap space – 31 years old on Sept 15, 2026
Release or Trade Hockenson saves 8.93M in cap space – 29 years old on July 3, 2026
Release Jones saves 7.2M in cap space – 31 years old on Dec 2, 2025
Release Hargrave saves 11M in cap space – 33 years old on Feb 7, 2026
Release Kelly saves 12.1M in cap space – 33 years old on May 30, 2026
Smith retires or is cut post June 1 – 37 years old on Feb 2, 2026
O’Neill has been a bit too injured of late and investing more money is probably not going to end well
Hockenson was paid like the top tight end in 2023 (or close) and has not performed well enough
Jones is old for running backs and gets dinged up often
Hargrave is aight but Redmond is and should get more snaps
Kelly is too risky
After these moves the team should have 36.3M in cap space (including the current carry over amount) and the only free agent they might consider giving an extension to is Redmond. Redmond is an Exclusive Right Free Agent who they can tender for 1.075M. I would try to extend him early though but not necessarily at the start of free agency.
Let’s say the Vikings do these moves. 36M in cap space without doing any restructures yet is not bad. You need to replace O’Neill and Hockenson. You already have Redmond playing more snaps than Hargrave. LDR has 311 snaps to Hargraves 376 snaps. The team really liked Elijah Williams so losing Hargrave may not be bad. You would need a running back to go with Mason and a couple of cornerbacks plus a safety or two. You might want to add a linebacker as well. All doable but maybe not for the high priced free agents.
But what about at QB? What to do? There was a speculation that the Vikings should trade for Mac Jones that got aggregated and now is being talked about as if they were even interested and that it is something they should do. So many “reports” are just speculation from some nimrod like myself.
Here is what I would do …
Trade a 2026 3rd round pick plus a conditional 2027 3rd round pick to the Cardinals for Kyler Murray.
Murray is due 42.5M in 2026 and 36.3M in 2027. He has a 17M roster bonus due the 5th league day in 2026 (early March) and his 2026 salary of 22.8M is gtd the 5th day as well. Also, his 19.5M 2027 salary is gtd the 5th league day in 2026. That could be negotiated in a trade though. Let’s say the team leaves those guarantees in place. They would have to pay him 79M for two years. I would want to add some void years and redo it a little to kick some dead money to 2028. If I add two void years and convert 25M of his salary and roster bonus his 2026 cap hit drops to 21.9M. I can restructure 16M of Greenard’s salary and have 29M in remaining cap space. In 2027, I can cut Allen and Metellus and have 49M in cap space.
What free agents do I like right now that wont break the bank (I think).
Travis Etienne RB – salary 6M
Jaylen Watson CB – salary 11M
Leo Chenal LB – salary 4M
I think there will be plenty of safeties and am not leaning towards spending big to get one. The team might get Nailor back at a discount due to the fact that he is not able to put up many stats due to the QB play this year. That is the tough part for a player like Nailor. He is playing for a new deal but the QBs are struggling. It might work in the Vikings favor this upcoming offseason provided that they want him back.
Yore Mock
Trade Partner: Steelers
Sent: PICK: 12
Received: PICK: 16 , Pick 77
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Trade Partner: Jaguars
Sent: PICK: 74
Received: PICK: 82, PICK 161
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Trade Partner: Broncos
Sent: PICK: 82
Received: PICK: 94, PICK 130
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PICK: 16 RND: 1 Francis Mauigoa OT Miami 6’6” 316PICK: 43 RND: 2 Dillon Thieneman S Oregon 6’0” 205PICK: 77 RND: 3 Domonique Orange DL Iowa State 6’4” 325PICK: 94 RND: 3 Eli Stowers TE Vanderbilt 6’4” 235PICK: 130 RND: 4 Chris Johnson CB San Diego State 6’0” 195PICK: 161 RND: 5 Jacob Rodriguez LB Texas Tech 6’1” 235PICK: 169 RND: 5 Davison Igbinosun CB Ohio State 6’2” 195PICK: 206 RND: 6 Clev Lubin EDGE Louisville 6’3” 250PICK: 227 RND: 7 Pat Coogan C Indiana 6’5” 311PICK: 237 RND: 7 Bishop Fitzgerald S USC 5’11” 205
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