The Minnesota Vikings put a lot of chips in the J.J. McCarthy basket. However, after just 10 starts, the team was reportedly willing to move on from the quarterback, after naming Kyler Murray their QB1.
Now, the latest reports from the team seem to suggest that the former first-round pick has fallen further down the totem pole. Sitting behind backup quarterback Carson Wentz on the depth chart, other teams are starting to note his deficiencies, too.
J.J. McCarthy Hasn’t Inspired Confidence
Leading Michigan to the national championship, the Vikings took a swing at him with the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Head coach Kevin O’Connell clearly had a ton of faith in him, moving on from both Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold in subsequent years.
However, after missing his entire rookie season with injuries, McCarthy was far from stellar in 2025. In 10 games, he tallied 1,632 passing yards and 11 touchdowns against 12 interceptions, alongside 181 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground.
As a result, the Vikings were more than happy to move forward with Murray when he became available in free agency. But given that choice, Mark Schlereth believes everyone would come to a similar conclusion.
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“That endorsement was J.J. McCarthy is going to be the best quarterback in this (draft) class,” the Denver Broncos legend said in reference to McCarthy’s collegiate head coach, Jim Harbaugh, who’s now in charge of the Los Angeles Chargers.
“If you really believe that, I think you can trade for him because I think Minnesota kept four quarterbacks,” Schlereth added. “I think he’s available, and I don’t know what you would give for him. I doubt you would give much. Nobody would give a top-four round pick.”
As a potential trade package, the former Super Bowl champion argued that McCarthy might not be worth much more than a seventh-round pick at this stage in his career.
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“We’ll give you a sixth, but in return you give us J.J. McCarthy and return a seventh,” Schlereth continued. “It would be essentially trading for like a case of Gatorade. You give us J.J. McCarthy, and we’ll stock your Gatorade fridge. We’ll give you six months supply of orange Gatorade.”
Ranking at number 34 on PFN’s Quarterback Impact Metrics last season, McCarthy had a poor season. But as Schlereth pointed out on his podcast, the Vikings quarterback could excel if he were to shift to a new system.
With multiple QB-needy teams across the NFL, not everyone can find their superstar option in the 2027 NFL Draft. For them, a developmental project that could one day blossom might be a worthy sales pitch, making McCarthy an attractive name in that scenario.
