The Vikings’ plan to turn the quarterback job over to J.J. McCarthy did not go exactly as planned in 2025.
McCarthy got off to a rocky start before missing time with an ankle injury and his play remained uneven upon his return to action. He also missed games with a concussion and a hairline fracture to his hand in the second half of the season, which led to head coach Kevin O’Connell saying that the team plans to add competition to the position at his end of season press conference.
The Vikings fired General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after O’Connell made those comments, but the plan to address the position hasn’t changed. Executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski is currently handling the GM responsibilities and he said on Tuesday that the team is not “ruling anything out” at the moment.
“We have not a ton of time, but we have a couple of weeks and so we’re exploring every option that could be out there,” Brzezinski said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. “It’s casting a wide net, I guess I would say.”
O’Connell also spoke to reporters from the Scouting Combine and said “a lot of those feelings are still the same” when asked if the team continues to view McCarthy as their franchise quarterback but “the timeline is in a different place” than it was when McCarthy was taken in the first round in 2024. The search for another option indicates that things are in a significantly different place and the moves the Vikings make in the coming weeks will send a clearer signal about how they view the position in 2026.
The Colts made a great move at quarterback last year, getting quarterback Daniel Jones on a one-year, $14 million deal. Now, they have a big decision to make.
Re-sign Jones, risk letting him become a free agent, or use the franchise tag?
The challenge when it comes to using the franchise tag is obvious. It’s not cheap. The projected 2026 franchise tag for the quarterback position is $47.3 million.
That’s a massive commitment, especially in light of Jones’s current health. He’s recovering from a torn Achilles tendon, with no guarantee that he’ll be 100 percent when the season starts.
On the other hand, they risk losing him to another team that would pay more than whatever the Colts might offer. And the Vikings, in theory, could be lurking.
Last year, the Vikings wanted to pair Jones with J.J. McCarthy. Jones believed that coach Kevin O’Connell would work his usual magic with McCarthy, making it unlikely Jones would play. In Indy, Jones received a full and fair chance to win the job from Anthony Richardson — and Jones did.
This time around, Jones may believe he has a chance to play in Minnesota.
The Vikings developed a high opinion of Jones during their limited time with him in 2024. Their opinion of him was sufficiently high that some believed Jones had a chance to leapfrog Sam Darnold during the playoffs, if the Vikings had managed to win the wild-card game against the Rams.
Regardless, Jones remains under contract with the Colts. They have a week to decide whether to tag him.
The transition tag is also available. It would cost $40 million for 2026, giving them only the right to match an offer sheet.
It all comes down to Jones’s true market. Would someone offer him $40 million per year? But for the Achilles injury, maybe.
That said, the Falcons gave Kirk Cousins $45 million per year in 2024, while he was recovering from the same injury. And the market, as Tua Tagovailoa once said, is the market.
The Colts need to figure out what the market for Jones may be, before deciding whether to apply the franchise tag.
The tragic passing of Vikings receiver Rondale Moore resulted in an embarrassing moment for ESPN. The photo ESPN used during Saturday night’s SportsCenter was not Rondale Moore. It was Vikings receiver Myles Price.
Via Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing, the incorrect photo appeared at 1:07 a.m. ET. It was removed from later versions of the broadcast, with Scott Van Pelt re-taping the segment. ESPN also apologized for using the incorrect photo.
It’s an understandable mistake. The photo services that provide images for ESPN and other media outlets routinely misidentify players and coaches.
We deal with it frequently. The search term is entered (i.e., the name of the person), and the options appear. Sometimes (and once is too often), the wrong photo is delivered.
On Saturday night, I nearly made the same mistake. At the last second, I remembered that Moore played only one game last year for the Vikings — in the home preseason opener against the Texans. There should have been no photos anywhere of Moore in a Vikings uniform with a white jersey.
Moore wore No. 4 in his only Vikings game. After Moore suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason opener against the Texans, Price switched to No. 4. Multiple photos of Price from the 2025 season have been labeled by the photo services as photos of Moore. (Since Saturday night, one of the services we use has caught the error and for the most part fixed it. The other service has not.)
When creating content and/or preparing graphics for a broadcast, things move quickly. Mistakes made by the photo services often aren’t noticed.
But that’s undoubtedly what happened to ESPN. Someone searched their photo service for an image of Rondale Moore, and the service had incorrectly included photos of Myles Price within the available selections. When the person making the graphic didn’t instantly recognize it was Price (or didn’t instantly realize it wasn’t Moore), the mistake made by the photo service made its way through to the final product.
It’s not an excuse, but an explanation. Until the various photo services properly categorize and label the photos, there’s a chance that someone will access the service, enter the person’s name, and select a photo without realizing the photo service served up the wrong photo.
It’s unfortunate, but it happens. Hopefully, ESPN’s error as to Rondale Moore will prompt the various photo services to accurately identify the persons in the photos they generate. Given that the media outlets pay the photo services for those images, it’s important that the right images are provided.
Ronyell Whitaker, a cornerback who spent six years playing pro football, has died at the age of 46.
“The Whitaker family is heartbroken to share the passing of our beloved son, brother and friend, Ronyell Deshawn Whitaker, who departed this life on Feb. 22, 2026,” Whitaker’s family said in a statement published by the Vikings. “Born on March 19, 1979, Ronyell lived a life marked by passion, perseverance and purpose. A gifted athlete, he proudly played high school football for Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk, Virginia, and college football for the Virginia Tech Hokies, where his talent, determination and leadership on the field made a lasting impact. Ronyell went on to pursue his professional dreams in the National Football League, signing as an undrafted free agent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003. Throughout his career, he also played for the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions, and he later continued his football journey in the Canadian Football League with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before retiring from professional football in 2010.”
Whitaker was born and raised in Norfolk. He was the nephew of boxing legend Pernell Whitaker.
After retiring from playing, Whitaker coached high school football and also was CEO of Whitaker Group, which specialized in relocations and short sales for professional athletes, who often have unique needs in having to find a new home quickly, something Whitaker himself knew as a player who had moved around in his career.
No cause of death has been announced.
The statement from the NFL Players Association strongly hinted at the cause of the sudden passing of Vikings receiver Rondale Moore on Saturday. Via the Associated Press, police in New Albany, Indiana, have said that Moore died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The official cause of death is pending an autopsy scheduled for Sunday.
It’s a tragic situation, one that happens far too often. Even though many who are dealing with depression and other mental-health issues seek help, many suffer in silence.
Even if friends, family, and teammates are looking for any signs of distress, sometimes there are none until it’s too late.
The message is clear. If you’re struggling, say something. To someone. To anyone. There’s always someone who will help you. You may think there isn’t, but there is.
The world has changed. No longer does anyone believe that it’s a sign of weakness to be vulnerable. And most understand the importance of reacting quickly when someone in their personal orbit needs help.
If all else fails, call or text 988. There’s not a single person whose absence would not affect multiple other people, in many different ways. During a November 2025 60 Minutes feature regarding the problem of suicides among farmers, Jolie Foreman of Shelby County Cares said that every suicide directly affects 130 people.
Some affect many more than that. Each one that happens should serve as a reminder to all of us that we need to be ready to seek help when we need it, and to give help when it’s requested. You can save a life. You can save your own.
