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The Minnesota Vikings will likely have a QB battle to determine who will be the starting signal-caller for the 2026 NFL season. Kyler Murray is the favorite to win the competition over J.J. McCarthy, and if he does, there will be questions regarding the young signal-caller’s future.
In 10 games during the 2025 season, McCarthy posted a 72.6 passer rating while throwing for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, per StatMuse. Nonetheless, McCarthy will need to improve this offseason if he hopes to beat Murray for the starting job.
Should McCarthy lose the competition, questions will arise about whether the Vikings could consider trading him. On March 13, Vikings reporter for The Athletic, Alec Lewis, shared whether McCarthy could be on the trade block later this year.
“[Trading McCarthy] cannot be completely ruled out,” Lewis wrote in his article. “Two factors matter in the overall calculus: How perturbed are McCarthy and his camp by the Murray signing? And what would other teams offer?
“The Vikings have publicly reiterated their feelings about McCarthy and that they see an advantage in giving him competition. They aren’t completely all in for 2026, evidenced by their measured approach in free agency. But they’re also not punting on a season that must reestablish their standing as formidable foes in the NFC North.”
Would J.J. McCarthy Want Out of Minnesota?
Moreover, Lewis notes that if McCarthy does lose the competition and wants a fresh start elsewhere, the Vikings wouldn’t stand in his way.
“Trading McCarthy would leave no murkiness around the hierarchy in the quarterback room,” Lewis added. “The Vikings invested too much in McCarthy, though, to pull the plug for anything other than top-tier compensation.
“McCarthy seeking another destination could introduce a different layer of decision-making. Minnesota likes to respond amicably to players’ desires. But leverage tends to matter in these situations, too, and McCarthy remains under contract for at least two more seasons.”
McCarthy would be following in the footsteps of Indianapolis Colts‘ Anthony Richardson, who lost the QB battle to Daniel Jones last year and, this offseason, was allowed to seek a trade. It will be interesting to see how this entire scenario plays out, but many view Murray as the favorite to win the Vikings’ starting job.
Kyler Murray Is the Favorite to Win Vikings Starting QB Job
While the Vikings will let the players determine who wins the job in practice and out on the field, CBS Sports NFL analyst Bryant McFadden already sees Murray being the starter over McCarthy.
“If it’s a quarterback competition, I visualize Kyler Murray winning that competition,” McFadden said on the March 12 edition of CBS Sports HQ. “I think this would be the same situation that we saw a year ago with the Indianapolis Colts when they brought in Daniel Jones.
“They made it known that it would be a quarterback competition between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson. However it played out, at the end of the day, Daniel Jones won that job. So if that’s the case for Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, I visualize Kyler Murray winning that job.”
Eduardo Razo Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo
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