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Kevin SeifertSep 18, 2025, 09:11 AM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Kevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL at ESPN. Kevin has covered the NFL for over 20 years, joining ESPN in 2008. He was previously a beat reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Washington Times. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n EAGAN, Minn. — Changing teams has grown routine for quarterback Carson Wentz<\/a>. He’s done it for six consecutive seasons. But his arrival in Minnesota last month to join the Vikings<\/a> remains special to him.<\/p>\n A native of Bismarck, North Dakota, Wentz grew up a Vikings fan and was especially enthralled with the team’s addition of quarterback Brett Favre in 2009, when Wentz was 16. He’ll wear the same uniform Sunday as he makes his Vikings debut against the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> at U.S. Bank Stadium as a replacement for starter J.J. McCarthy<\/a>, who is recovering from a high right ankle sprain.<\/p>\n “It’s cool just to kind of even be here,” Wentz said Wednesday. “I grew up rooting for this team. It’s one of those things that if you play long enough, you kind of forget about those things. You’re bouncing around teams, but being here, I kind of alluded to it when I first got here of just how cool it’s for me. I used to cheer for the guys that I’m walking down the hallway seeing [photographs of]. I used to come to the Metrodome and I was waving the towel. So running out of that tunnel this week will probably hit me a little bit different in a really cool kind of surreal way. So I’m excited for it.”<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Wentz will become the first player in NFL history to start at least one game for a different team in six consecutive years, having spent time with the Eagles<\/a> (2020), Colts<\/a> (2021), Commanders<\/a> (2022), Rams<\/a> (2023) and Chiefs<\/a> (2024) before the Vikings signed him Aug. 24. But his starts in each of the past two seasons were irrelevant end-of-season games when his teams wanted to rest starters prior to the playoffs.<\/p>\n On Sunday, the Vikings are asking Wentz to help smooth out an offense that has struggled amid McCarthy’s inexperience. The Vikings rank at the bottom of the league in offensive efficiency (10.94) and are No. 26 in scoring (16.5 points per game). Wentz admitted that he is “still learning the ins and outs” of the Vikings’ scheme and said the process is “very different” from anything he’s ever done in his career.<\/p>\n “I’m not going to lie,” Wentz said. “It’s been a couple of years since I’ve played in a game like this with real consequences. So I’m really excited for it.”<\/p>\n Much of his family was already planning to attend Sunday’s game at U.S. Bank Stadium, and he said the news of his elevation to starter will draw an even bigger crowd of supporters.<\/p>\n “Everybody’s pretty excited,” Wentz said. “Again, you never wish for injuries. But just the way this is happening, to get a chance with the team I grew up rooting for close to home, I’m just excited for the chance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin SeifertSep 18, 2025, 09:11 AM CloseKevin Seifert is a staff writer who covers the Minnesota Vikings and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-150820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}