Entering the 2025 season, the Minnesota Vikings had high hopes for the current roster and quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Instead of the success that was expected, the Vikings had a bad season. The offense was not what it was supposed to be, and most of that can be blamed on the QB position.
After being out for his entire rookie season, McCarthy needed a year to develop, but it looked like more than just that. McCarthy’s play caused the Vikings to lose some long-term trust in the young QB, and with a roster trying to win now, the QB position is up in the air for 2026.
NFL Insider Reveals That the Vikings Targeted a Different QB in the 2024 NFL Draft
With the QB issue a glaring concern for the foreseeable future, looking back at some of the team’s prior decisions is always informative and makes you think, “what could have been”. For most people, this is the Vikings’ decision to let Sam Darnold walk in free agency rather than sign him. Darnold is now leading the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl 60, so this decision by Minnesota gets heavy criticism.
It seems that there was another potential outcome for the Vikings that could have changed everything for this team. According to NFL insider Albert Breer, the Vikings actually tried to go all in and trade for New England Patriots QB Drake Maye:
“The Vikings tried with all their might to trade up for Drake Maye in 2024. O’Connell loved him. Maye was coached in high school by Vikings assistant Josh McCown and was a teammate of McCown’s son. Minnesota offered both of its first-round picks in 2024 (Nos. 11 and 23) and its 2025 first-rounder to the Patriots, with later-round pick swaps favoring Minnesota to move up to the third pick.
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“O’Connell pushed them to go further. It wouldn’t matter, because the Patriots weren’t moving, sitting there as convicted in Maye as Minnesota was in the former North Carolina quarterback.”
Funny enough, both of the examples above of potential Vikings QBs (Darnold and Maye) are the two QBs currently facing off in Super Bowl 60.
McCarthy’s confidence was already lower than at the start of the season, but if this report is true and the young QB sees it, it just makes the entire situation a bit worse. No player wants to be the second option, but now it’s time to prove why the Vikings selected him.
In the 2025/26 season, McCarthy was ranked 37th overall in PFSN’s NFL QB Impact Metric. Clearly, he wasn’t good enough, so maybe next season will be better.
