{"id":549515,"date":"2026-03-20T18:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549515\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T18:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:22:10","slug":"espn-nfl-analysts-says-j-j-mccarthy-is-no-longer-the-vikings-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549515\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN NFL analysts says J.J. McCarthy is no longer the Vikings starter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many NFL analysts think that when the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> signed Kyler Murray, there would be an open QB competition between Murray and current Vikings starter J.J. McCarthy.<\/p>\n

But some think the quarterback competition ended when Murray was signed, and the real competition may be for the backup position behind him.<\/p>\n

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At least that\u2019s what ESPN\u2019s Bill Barnwell thinks.<\/p>\n

\u201cJ.J. McCarthy, with this signing of Carson Wentz, is competing for the backup job,\u201d he said. I don’t know if J.J. McCarthy is even the right option to be the number 2 guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may have been confirmed when the Vikings re-signed Carson Wentz, who was McCarthy\u2019s backup last year.<\/p>\n

The Vikings indicated that there will be an open quarterback competition between Murray and McCarthy regardless of what others say, but the consensus is that Murray will be the starter.<\/p>\n

McCarthy, as many recall, was the Vikings’ first-round draft pick in 2024 but injured himself during fall camp, ending his season.<\/p>\n

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The Vikings would then start backup Sam Darnold, who led the team to one of the NFL’s best records and a playoff berth that season.<\/p>\n

Rather than re-signing Darnold, the Vikings decided to go with McCarthy, who struggled as the Vikings’ starter last year, which is why they went into free agency and signed Murray.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: ESPN NFL analysts says J.J. McCarthy is no longer the Vikings starter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many NFL analysts think that when the Minnesota Vikings signed Kyler Murray, there would be an open QB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[93130,49,48,43032,1771,13294,1726,514,1756,82],"class_list":["post-549515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-bill-barnwell","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carson-wentz","tag-j-j-mccarthy","tag-kyler-murray","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfl","tag-sam-darnold","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}