Vikings Clips
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.
When veteran defender Jamal Adams joined the Vikings, the team assigned him a traditional linebacker number: 54. He recently switched to 32.
And while he’s still officially listed in the team’s online roster as a linebacker, the change means Adams will be playing plenty of safety — his original NFL position.
Adams anticipates being deployed at both positions.
“I was telling some people inside the training room, just to have somebody believe in me again, and to know I can go back there and play the safety position, it feels great,” Adams said, via Lindsey Young of Vikings.com. “I can kind of do it all in the back end. I just want to be versatile and do anything I can to help the team.
“The key is winning. So whatever they need me to do, I’m going to do. That’s what I’m here for.”
Adams reiterated prior comments regarding the long road back to full health after tearing a quad tendon in Week 1 of the 2022 season.
“When I got hurt in ’22, and then . . . those two or three years, I felt like I lost a little bit off my career,” Adams said. “So for me, it’s like a rebirth. There was a lot of adversity I went through, and I knew eventually I was going to make it out of that hole, but it was going to take time — and it took longer than I expected. But mentally and physically, I had to rebrand myself, be better on and off the field as far as my mentals and how I approached the game.
“I have a different perspective. It’s a different perspective on not only football but just life. Just being grateful and being happy where I am. Being where my feet are and just embracing the opportunity.”
Adams’s versatility fits perfectly with the Brian Flores defense, which uses chaos and unpredictability to rattle nerves and create mismatches. Adams could end up being a key piece of the Minnesota attack.
The Wilfs have owned the Vikings for 21 years. They don’t plan to end their tenure any time soon.
Earlier this year, local speculation emerged that the Wilfs could sell based on a massive drop in spending from 2025 to 2026. The team quickly got the word out that it’s not, and won’t be, for sale.
“The business side of it is not what got us into the Minnesota Vikings,” co-owner Mark Wilf told reporters on Thursday. “We love football. We’re honored and privileged to be stewards of an incredible franchise, and our ultimate goal is to bring championships to the fans of the Minnesota Vikings, who really deserve it. And that’s what we’re about, and that’s the excitement, and we’re long term, we’re a family that is going to hopefully be part of the Minnesota Vikings for a very, very long time.”
Wilf also said that the Vikings “aren’t focused on” the possibility of selling a piece of the team to any of the approved private-equity funds.
The Wilfs have successfully built a new stadium, one that has hosted a Super Bowl. By all indications, the Vikings continue to make plenty of money, each and every year.
The on-field success has been limited, to say the least. Since the Wilfs bought the team from the late Red McCombs in 2005, the Vikings have won only three playoff games: one in 2009, one in 2017, and one in 2019. The Vikings have made it to the playoffs only eight times in the 21 seasons that the Wilfs have owned the team, with back-to-back playoff years only once (2008 and 2009).
“Ultimately, it’s about not just playoff wins, but championships,” Wilf said. “And that is the ultimate measure. We know that. We try to be patient as an ownership, and that’s what our — that we know is the ultimate success. But, of course, patience isn’t infinite. We understand that, but I feel really good about the direction of this football club, and we’re going to get those benchmarks checked off here.”
The biggest benchmark — winning a Super Bowl — has never been checked off by the Vikings. Since the team’s last Super Bowl appearance 50 years ago, the Vikings have gone 0-6 in the NFC Championship.
While the Wilfs aren’t cheap, talk is. Yes, Mark Wilf said the right things on Thursday. It all comes down to whether the organization can find a way to consistently contend, and whether it can ever get back to a Super Bowl and finally win one.
For most Vikings fans who lived (and died) with a team that did very well, but not well enough, in the 1970s, the dream has been to witness the confetti fall of purple helmets just once in their lifetimes. For those who are still alive, the realization has begun to creep in that it’s not going to happen before they’re blowing the great Gjallarhorn in the sky.
When the Ravens rewarded receiver Zay Flowers with a new deal that carries a new-money average of $35 million per year, plenty of other receivers surely took notice.
The most obvious raised eyebrows belong to Rams receiver Puka Nacua and Cowboys receiver George Pickens. Nacua, who’s making $5.767 million in the final year of his rookie contract, has other issues that are complicating a long-term deal. Still, with each new big-money receiver deal that’s done, the absence of one for Nacua becomes more glaring.
With Pickens, the real question is whether the Cowboys will tag him again next year. At $27.298 million for 2026, the Cowboys could hold Pickens in place for $32.75 million in 2027 — still well below the top of the market. Surely, Jerry Jones will be inclined to do that.
But it’s not just the guys who haven’t gotten paid who will take notice of the Flowers deal. Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson, like Flowers, is at $35 million per year. All due respect to Flowers, he’s not Justin Jefferson.
Eventually, Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase will start to wonder whether he’s fairly paid at $40 million. Especially as more players who aren’t Ja’Marr Chase approach and pass his APY.
So, yes, the Flowers deal will make waves. The Drake London deal will make waves. Eventually, it will fuel a wave of contracts for other receivers who’ll see those deals and get ideas of their own that, given the market and the ever-increasing salary cap, are more than fair to have.
