To say J.J. McCarthy’s NFL career has gotten off to a disappointing start would be a massive understatement. The former standout quarterback at Michigan was expected to become the long-term answer at the position for the Vikings, but a combination of injuries and poor play has left his future with the organization being murky.
While the young quarterback was given a chance to win the job in training camp, he was beaten out by veteran quarterback Kyler Murray, who was signed in the offseason.
J.J. McCarthy Draws Criticism from Vikings Fans Amidst Poor Preseason Start
While McCarthy has lost the starting quarterback job to Murray, the team has insisted that they are still high on him long term. Whether that is true remains to be seen.
Still, McCarthy is getting valuable opportunities to prove himself in the preseason, whether for his future in Minnesota or to showcase his skills to other teams that could see something in him and try to acquire him.
However, McCarthy has not yet made the most of those opportunities in the preseason, has continued to struggle with consistency, and has missed some easy throws.
“As of right now, from what I saw on Saturday, I can only hold Kevin O’Connell accountable for J.J. McCarthy’s development to a certain extent, and I’ve gotta hold McCarthy accountable for his own also,” said the “Skol State of Mind” podcast. “J.J. McCarthy has to take some accountability.”
McCarthy has to take some accountability!
I’ve been critical of KOC and his role in McCarthy’s development, but after what I saw Saturday, I can’t put it all on the coaching staff. At some point, J.J. has to make the routine throws, take what the defense gives him, and… pic.twitter.com/8i7Q7NMj0O
— SkolStateOfMind (@SkolStateOfMind) August 24, 2026
Through two weeks of the preseason, McCarthy has completed nine of 17 passes for 115 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
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He has also been sacked twice. While he hasn’t made any massive mistakes, he has been inaccurate and has failed to generate big plays, despite playing in games with many teams’ defensive starters not suited up.
“When you’re a quarterback in the NFL, we are going to be wowed by the down the field plays, the scrambles, all that highlights,” he added. “But what you have to do as a quarterback in the NFL is to be consistent with the scheduled throws.”
McCarthy ranked as the No. 34 quarterback in PFN’s Quarterback Impact metric (QBi) in 2025, completing 57.6% of his passes for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Despite the rocky numbers, Minnesota was 6-4 in his 10 starts.
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McCarthy will have one more opportunity to showcase his ability before the start of the season, when the Vikings take on the Denver Broncos on the road on Friday, in their final preseason game of 2026.
The 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft is still only 23 years old, and plenty of quarterbacks have bloomed late, or once they found a new situation, so he surely can’t be written off yet. Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, Baker Mayfield, and Mac Jones, to varying degrees, had tumultuous moments early in their careers and have since found success with other teams.
Whether the same will be said of McCarthy, or if he will stay with Minnesota, remains to be seen, but if he doesn’t showcase flashes of his upside this week, it could be a while before he gets some real runway to do so.
In the meantime, Minnesota is gearing up to bounce back in 2026 and hopes that the addition of a veteran like Murray, with past success, can be the missing piece to get them back there.
