Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski both spoke with reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday about a handful of topics, including the future of young quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
Most notably, neither O’Connell nor Brzezinski seemed eager to keep McCarthy in the starting role for Week 1 of the 2026 season.
Have Vikings’ feelings on J.J. McCarthy changed?
“It’s just the timeline is in a different place for all of us than it was at that point,” O’Connell said about referring to McCarthy as “our franchise quarterback” in August 2024, per Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “And I have a responsibility — we have a responsibility collectively as we put together this team — to make sure that we use the data that we have at this time and the experiences we have, the feelings that we’ve had at different times as an organization.”
A 2024 first-round draft choice, McCarthy spent his entire rookie season recovering from a full meniscus repair. Injuries then
limited him to just 10 starts, some of which were far from impressive, this past season.
Stories shared throughout the winter have linked the Vikings with quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mac Jones of the San Francisco 49ers. It seems to be a lock that neither would be asked to compete for the starting job with McCarthy, and Vic Tafur of The Athletic recently said that the Vikings are among clubs “expected to make big offers for” Jones. Jones signed a two-year contract with the 49ers last March, and he then went 5-3 across eight starts.
Vikings will “explore every opportunity” to upgrade at quarterback
“What we do know is we need a level of baseline quarterback play for us to be effective,” Brzezinski added on Tuesday. “A lot of this has been J.J. in unfortunate [situations] with some of the injuries and things that he’s dealt with, but we’re going to explore every opportunity, and I don’t think there’s anything specifically we’re looking for. We can’t manufacture anything that’s not there. So, No. 1, what are the options? Is it reciprocal? Is it financially doable? All those things. There’s just a lot of factors that go into it.”
The Vikings may not be ready to fully give up on McCarthy just yet, but it certainly sounds like he could enter his third pro season as a full-time backup for a more-proven commodity.
