Daniel Jones could have stayed in Minnesota. He opted to sign with the Colts due in part to his belief that Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell would work his usual magic with J.J. McCarthy.
Through six starts, there’s nothing magical about McCarthy’s performance.
On Sunday against the Packers, only four days after McCarthy compared his situation to a “cork about to come off a bottle,” the bottle may have shattered.
He completed 12 of 19 passes for 87 yards and two interceptions. He has thrown two picks in three straight games, matching Christian Ponder in 2012 as the only Vikings quarterbacks to do it in the past 30 years. He has an interception in each of his six starts, matching only Zach Mettenberger, Blake Bortles, and Deshone Kizer in that regard over the last 20 yeas.
For the game, McCarthy threw five passes that went 10 or more yards past the line of scrimmage. Via ESPN Research, he completed two of five for 34 yards and two picks.
In the second half, the Vikings gained four yards on 15 plays.
McCarthy, who remains a work in progress, is making no progress. And with a seventh loss likely ending Minnesota’s hopes for the postseason, the balance of 2025 should be treated as an extended preseason for 2026.
Presumably, the Vikings will let McCarthy ride it out, hopeful the proverbial cork will eventually pop. At some point, though, they’ll have to ask whether the cork is stuck like Flick’s tongue to a frozen flagpole.
Once they decide McCarthy won’t be the unquestioned starter for 2026 (at this point, there’s no reason to believe he’ll be handed the job), why not give reps to undrafted rookie Max Brosmer? They supposedly love him. If so, let’s see what he can do.
Only the dysfunctional teams double down on obvious mistakes. All things considered (including a rookie season scrapped by a preseason knee injury), the decision to take McCarthy with the tenth overall pick in 2024 (they traded up one spot to avoid being leapfrogged) was a mistake.
At this point, nothing can change the fact that they passed on handing the starting job to Sam Darnold (who they’ll see next week) or Jones, or that they supposedly rebuffed interest from Aaron Rodgers. None of that should be a reason to keep trying to make something happen that isn’t going to happen.
That doesn’t mean McCarthy should be cut. He’s under contract for two more years, at low compensation packages of $2.775 million in 2026 and $3.775 million in 2027. He can continue to work on the various things on which he needs to work. And maybe, at some point, it will work out. For now, playing isn’t making things better.
He seems to be thinking too much. Trying too hard. And the more things go sideways, the more he overthinks, the harder he overtries.
Why not try something else? If it doesn’t work, they’ll at least know whether Brosmer can play. Which will be important information when deciding in the offseason what they’ll do about the quarterback position in 2026.
Taking a step back worked for Bryce Young. It could work for McCarthy. One thing has become clear. Pushing forward is only setting the franchise back.