Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy won’t be the team’s starter in 2026. In his first sessions with reporters since the decision to go with Kyler Murray was announced, McCarthy was asked whether he thinks he’s still a starter in this league.
“Yes, I believe so,” McCarthy said. “And I’m always gonna have that confidence in myself, no matter what. But at this time it’s doing whatever I can for the team, and, you know, being ready when my number’s called. And that’s all that matters, that’s all I can control.”
Control is the key. He ultimately couldn’t control the decision made by the coaching staff to make him a backup to Murray.
“Decision was made that was out of my control, and obviously, every competitor wants to play,” McCarthy said earlier in the press conference. “But moving forward, it’s just about continuing to work hard and just staying ready for when my number’s called.”
He said he was “obviously disappointed” about the decision. “But at the end of the day, you know, it’s in the past, and I’m moving on to the next practice, the next rep, the same mindset I had going into it, and focusing on the Giants this week,” McCarthy said.
“I’m really proud of my development,” McCarthy added. “You know, I feel like I’ve grown in so many different areas, and it’s gonna just continue to do that, and I’m gonna keep my head down and keep working.”
As he goes from QB1 to QB2 in Minnesota, McCarthy was asked whether he thinks he can become Minnesota’s starter again.
“Like I said before, you know, this is a place I want to be, and I love every single person in this building,” he said. “I love this state. I love the fan base, and I’m gonna continue to just do whatever I can for this team, this organization.”
Does he think he got a fair chance to win the job with the Vikings?
“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about that at all. I was just thinking about that opportunity, that next opportunity to capitalize on, and continue to develop and grow,” McCarthy said. “That’s really all I was focused on.”
If he wasn’t thinking about whether he got a fair chance during the competition, does he think he got a fair shot now that it’s over?
“Same way,” McCarthy said. “I couldn’t control anything during, couldn’t control anything after. And the only thing I could do is focus on that next rep and keep attacking.”
Overall, McCarthy’s comments don’t mesh with the notion being perpetuated by the likes of ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who seems to believe McCarthy wants a fresh start elsewhere. And maybe McCarthy has opted to continue to say all the right things while privately planning to find a chance to get back on the field with another team.
If, as McCarthy believes, he’s a starter in the NFL, he presumably prefers to start elsewhere than to be on the bench with the Vikings.
For now, all starting jobs are taken. Come 2027, that likely will change. In the interim, all he can do is wait — either for a chance to replace Murray in Minnesota or for an injury elsewhere that prompts a trade that would give McCarthy an opportunity to play right away.
And he will get a chance to play this weekend, against the Giants in a preseason game.
“Extremely excited,” he said. “It’s always a blessing to be able to go out and go to battle with your teammates, with your brothers, against somebody else. And I’m really excited to see what this group looks like. All ninety guys were really happy and proud of the work we put in, so we’re ready to put it on display.”
For McCarthy, putting it on display may not get him on the field for games that count for the Vikings. It could, however, get someone else interested in him, now or in the future.
Vikings Clips
From the moment quarterback Kyler Murray joined the Vikings, it seemed as if the starting job was his to lose. On Tuesday, he officially won it.
Although coach Kevin O’Connell called it a “true competition,” only the coaching staff and the organization know if it was a truly open competition.
It was impossible to do an accurate blow-by-blow comparison of who was “winning,” because outsiders aren’t privy to the plans that were put in place for pairing the offense and the defense as to any of the various reps.
In announcing the decision to go with Murray, O’Connell credited the role of defensive coordinator Brian Flores, “from a standpoint of looks that, you know, we gave the guys different challenges on different days while letting them kind of compete at the same stride early on.”
Without knowing whether the defensive looks were specifically planned to make it harder for one candidate and/or easier for another, tracking the raw practice stats meant nothing.
O’Connell, working with Flores, may have been making it a little harder for Murray to see how he handled an unexpected curveball, in the form of a defense that was designed to shut down the play that was called. And O’Connell may have been giving J.J. McCarthy combinations of offensive and defensive play calls aimed at giving him a chance to have a good rep.
The point is that there’s no way of knowing whether it was easier or harder at any given moment for either Murray or McCarthy. And there’s no way of knowing that the overall goal was to get the team to see enough to support the possibly predetermined conclusion that McCarthy would be taking a backseat to a newly-arrived veteran.
The timing of the announcement — the Tuesday before the first preseason game — was the most sensible day for declaring the competition to be over. In lieu of giving both guys a preseason game with the first-team offense, O’Connell decided to call it and to pivot to getting Murray ready for Week 1.
If it was a truly open competition, the Vikings possibly would have given both guys a chance to perform in something much closer to real game situations before making a decision. Instead, they saw enough to make the decision that seemed to have been tentatively made when Murray was signed, even if the drip-drip of the practice accounts from media and fans suggested McCarthy had a real shot of winning it.
McCarthy, in all fairness, lost it last year, both by the things that everyone could see during games and the stuff that happens out of the public eye that surely factored into O’Connell’s decision that it was time to take the team in a different direction. Tuesday’s decision was the next logical step in an effort to generate the kind of quality and consistency in quarterback play that the Vikings didn’t have last year, when they decided not to have a proven veteran around to get McCarthy to step up — or to step off.
The Vikings have announced a couple of roster moves on Wednesday.
Minnesota has signed running back Jermar Jefferson and waived running back Jordan Mims.
Jefferson, 26, entered the league as a Lions seventh-round pick in 2021. He has appeared in 11 career games, rushing for 96 yards with two touchdowns.
Last year, Jefferson appeared in two games for the Cardinals, playing exclusively on special teams. He was most recently with the 49ers for a brief stint during this year’s offseason program.
Mims had joined the Vikings late last month. He also was with the 49ers for a brief stint during the offseason program this year.
Tuesday’s announcement that Kyler Murray will be Minnesota’s starting quarterback means that 2024 first-rounder J.J. McCarthy won’t be.
What else does it mean for McCarthy?
He’ll speak to reporters on Wednesday. Everything he says, and doesn’t say, will be scrutinized. What he says and does away from the cameras and microphones will be far more important.
Will McCarthy willingly accept his new role? Will he bristle about it? Will he make snide comments to teammates, sowing potential dissension and discord?
Will he want out?
Although card-carrying Michigan man Adam Schefter is being justifiably dragged for carrying McCarthy’s water, Schefter’s pro-McCarthy take carries a distinct message: McCarthy, whether he admits it or not, likely wants out.
We caught a whiff of that vibe a year ago, when the Vikings were considering veteran options to pair with a roster into which the team had poured plenty of cash. If Sam Darnold or Daniel Jones had stayed, or if Aaron Rodgers had arrived, McCarthy possibly would have asked to be traded.
Now, after 10 games, McCarthy is being relegated to the bench. Although he won his final four starts in 2025, McCarthy finished the year with 11 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions, and a passer rating of 72.6.
It wasn’t good enough to get the Vikings to not pursue a veteran in 2026. To acquire Murray with a hint that it was his job to lose from the get-go. And to eventually make Murray the starter, despite the fact that the Vikings traded up from No. 11 to No. 10 to get “Nine” only two years ago.
The literal ball is out of McCarthy’s hands. But the figurative ball is now in his court. Will he ask to be traded?
Even if he does, who will trade for him? On one hand, his pay for the next two years is favorable. After receiving a $1.7 million roster bonus, he’s owed only $1.075 million in salary. Next year, he’ll make $3.775 million. On the other hand, there’s currently no obvious spot.
If his former Michigan coach loves McCarthy as much as he claims to, the Chargers and Jim Harbaugh could trade for McCarthy and make him the backup to Justin Herbert, bumping Trey Lance down a spot — or off the roster altogether. For the other L.A. team, where the Rams have no current backup to Matthew Stafford who has played in a regular-season game, McCarthy becomes a more affordable alternative to Jimmy Garoppolo.
The more likely outcome is that McCarthy and the Vikings will wait for a potential opportunity arising from an injury before the Tuesday after Week 9. If it never comes, McCarthy could remain in Minnesota for the full season, waiting for a chance to play if Murray is injured.
Regardless, it’s a setback for McCarthy. And the Vikings have chosen not to try to justify the 2024 draft-pick investment at the risk of not being a contender in 2026.
Pro football is the ultimate meritocracy. Nothing is given to anyone. Everything must be earned. McCarthy’s best play will be to not behave as if he was entitled to be the starter this year — and to focus on improving his skills and abilities in a way that will give him a chance to get back on the field again, in Minnesota or elsewhere.
But here’s the thing to remember. Although Schefter has already compared McCarthy to other first-round picks who found success in their second (or third . . . or fourth) career stops, those players were drafted by chronically dysfunctional franchises without a head coach who has shown that he can get the most out of the talent the quarterback possesses.
As to McCarthy, some may conclude that, if O’Connell can’t get him to play consistently at a high level, no one can.
On Tuesday, the Vikings named quarterback Kyler Murray the starting quarterback for 2026. After the decision was announced, Murray spoke to reporters.
One thing that stands out may be the one thing that made a difference when making him the starter — his ability to make plays with his legs.
“I think, you know, as far as my ability to move around, stuff like that, it’s tough to emulate that stuff on the practice field, when bullets aren’t really flying and there’s no referees out here to be able to say if we were sacked or not,” Murray said. “But I think when we get out there, you know, come game time, I think that stuff just happens for me. That stuff just happens, you know, trying to premeditate what I’m gonna do or anything like that. But I definitely think that’s an ability of mine that, you know, is a special one.”
Quarterbacks coach Josh McCown previously addressed that dynamic. The Vikings have been trying to get him up to speed as to running the new offense. His instinctive and uncanny ability to run the ball will make everything in the passing game easier.
Defenses will have to account for that. And it could make them hesitant in coverage, which could help receivers get open.
Regardless, the Vikings have made their decision. Coach Kevin O’Connell said during the offseason that, once they name a starter, they plan to stick with him all year.
In the two years the Vikings have gone to the playoffs under O’Connell, they had the same quarterback all year. In the two years they didn’t, they had a revolving door.
And so it’s Murray moving forward. He’ll be able to keep learning the offense. And he’ll be in a position to pull the ball down and Road Runner away from the 11 Wile E. Coyotes who won’t be able to catch him.
The Vikings put an end to their quarterback competition on Tuesday.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed reports that Kyler Murray won the job over J.J. McCarthy at the start of his press conference and said that this was always the time that they had targeted to make a choice. O’Connell said that making the decision now allows the Vikings to “start honing in on exactly what we’re gonna be offensively” because they will tailor things to Murray’s skill set heading into Week 1.
O’Connell said that Murray has “shown enough to really project . . . that we can get the rhythm, the timing, the mastery of our system and this year’s system” to the place where the Vikings want it to be.
“There’s comfort from Kyler in the scheme,” O’Connell said, via KARE 11. “He had some really high completion days where he was able to show some really, really good understanding of just putting the ball in play, playing with great timing and rhythm. . . . As you continue to look at the body of work really through those 10 days, what jumped out is what could be.”
O’Connell called McCarthy an “incredibly important member of our quarterback room and our team,” but his comments on Murray make it pretty clear that he believes the older quarterback raises the ceiling on the team’s offensive possibilities to a higher level. That had been the expected conclusion for many people and the Vikings getting there means they can start the work to reach that plane.
The Vikings’ quarterback competition is over.
Minnesota has named Kyler Murray its starting quarterback, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Murray, the No. 1 pick of the 2019 draft, signed a one-year deal with Minnesota in the offseason with the thought of earning the starting role over J.J. McCarthy. That has now happened before the first preseason game, setting up Murray to take all of the starters’ reps over the next month in preparation for the regular season.
Murray started five games for Arizona last year, completing 68.3 percent of his passes for 962 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions. In 2024, he started all 17 games, recording 3,851 passing yards with 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions with a 68.8 percent completion rate.
Notably, Murray has a no-tag clause in his contract, which means he is set to become a free agent next March.
McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick of the 2024 draft, will now go into his third season as a backup after dealing with injuries and poor performance in his first two years. He started 10 games for Minnesota last year, completing 57.6 percent of his passes for 1,632 yards with 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also took 27 sacks, which worked out to a high 10.0 percent sack rate. His passer rating was just 72.6.
Minnesota’s first preseason game is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. ET against the Giants.
Teddy Bridgewater returned to the NFL after announcing his retirement at the end of the 2023 season, but he was back in uniform before the end of the 2024 season.
Bridgewater said on Monday that his second retirement is going to be a lasting one. Bridgewater stepped away from the Lions this weekend and they placed him on the reserve/retired list on Sunday.
“This time it’s official,” Bridgewater wrote in a post to his Instagram account.
Bridgewater went on to recall his comeback from a 2016 knee injury that he described as “gruesome” and created doubt about his ability to play football again. Bridgewater returned to the Vikings before the end of the 2017 season and played for most of the next decade, but he wrote “this wheel of mine can no longer deal with something as simple as standing around on a turf field.”
The Vikings selected Bridgewater in the first round in 2014 and he went on to play for the Saints, Panther, Broncos, Lions and Buccaneers. He returned to the Lions as a free agent this offseason, but the newly signed Josh Dobbs is now set to back up Jared Goff in Detroit.
The Vikings’ quarterback competition has not reached the finish line yet, but one of the aspirants is impressing head coach Kevin O’Connell with his grasp of the offense.
Kyler Murray joined the Vikings this offseason and has had less time in O’Connell’s scheme than J.J. McCarthy, but O’Connell said on Sunday that Murray is further along than expected when it comes to his mental processing.
“I think mentally he’s definitely probably ahead of where I thought,” O’Connell said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com.
Murray has been seen as the favorite to wind up with the job and that assessment would seem to help his chances, but O’Connell gave no indication that a decision is imminent.
“Nothing has really changed from a standpoint of the timeline and things like that,” O’Connell said. “So we’ll see how the reps continue to go and when we feel like we’re at that place, we’re going to make sure we communicate that both in house and internally and obviously to you guys as soon as possible.”
The Vikings open the preseason against the Giants on Saturday and the quarterback play in that game could push things closer to a conclusion in Minnesota.
The running game has largely been an afterthought during Kevin O’Connell’s first four years as the Vikings’ head coach. This year, with former Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith (now assistant head coach in Minnesota) helping to install a wide-zone rushing attack, the Vikings could be running it more.
And they could end up relying on speedy sixth-round rookie Demond Claiborne.
For now, Claiborne has a firm believer in veteran Aaron Jones.
“You can see it,” running back Aaron Jones Sr. said, via Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Right away, just getting in and out of the cuts. He’s a special back in this league. I get to mentor him up and show him the way. I told him I want him to be successful, I want to see him go on and get paid and those kinds of things. He’ll be playing in this league as long as he wants to, but just got to lock in here and take care of the business.”
Claiborne, who spent four seasons at Wake Forest, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.37 seconds at the Scouting Combine in February. He nevertheless fell to pick No. 198.
The Vikings also have Jordan Mason, Zavier Scott, and Jordan Mims in the backfield.
It remains to be seen if the Vikings make the full commitment to running the ball. O’Connell is a quarterback guru, and the passing game has taken precedence.
But nothing opens up the passing game like an effective running game that can force a defense to get caught flat-footed while trying too hard to get to the tailback with the ball. And with so much focus on the team’s quarterback competition, a potent running game could make life a lot easier for whoever wins the job.
