Heading into a Christmas Day game against the Detroit Lions, the Minnesota Vikings have had a ton of trouble keeping their quarterbacks healthy. J.J. McCarthy suffered an injury last week and is out, while his backup, Carson Wentz, is also sidelined for the rest of the season.
Now, the Vikings and head coach Kevin O’Connell have put the Minnesota offense in the hands of rookie Max Brosmer.
More on QB Max Brosmer
Entering Thursday afternoon’s game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Brosmer has been thrust into action.
The Vikings will wear their ice-white uniforms when they take on the Lions, led by Jared Goff and Aidan Hutchinson.
Iced out 🥶🥶🥶 pic.twitter.com/lHoBz3pgzw
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 25, 2025
Brosmer has appeared in five games this season for Minnesota. He has one start so far, which came against the Seattle Seahawks. Entering the game against the Lions, Brosmer is 31-of-47 passing for 220 yards, no touchdowns, and four interceptions. In the past five games that Brosmer has seen action in for the Vikings, Minnesota has gone 3-2.
He played college football at Minnesota. In the 2024 season, Brosmer threw for 2,828 yards, 18 touchdowns, and six interceptions for the Golden Gophers of the Big Ten Conference. The 24-year-old quarterback also played college ball at New Hampshire before transferring to Minnesota.
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Brosmer, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 218 pounds, played his high school ball at Centennial High School in Georgia.
Max Brosmer’s Contract Details
Earlier this year, Brosmer signed as an undrafted free agent with the Vikings. According to Spotrac, he signed a three-year, $2.975 million deal and will earn an average annual salary of $991,667.
At this point, Brosmer has not accumulated data to be among the Vikings’ quarterbacks ranked in the PFSN NFL QB Impact metrics. For the season, McCarthy has an impact score of 72.7 and grades out to a C-. What about Wentz? With his season now over, Wentz had an impact score of 61.8 and graded out to a D-.
For the Vikings, they are 7-8 on the season and just 2-4 on their home field. The Lions come into Thursday afternoon’s showdown at 8-7, 3-4 away from the friendly confines of Ford Field in Detroit.
Hutchinson will look to apply pressure on Brosmer whenever possible. For the Vikings quarterback to counter any defensive pressure from Detroit, he’ll have to get the ball out of his hands quickly.
The Vikings know that they don’t have a veteran signal-caller taking the field, so O’Connell and the other offensive coaches need to give Brosmer some plays he trusts in running. Having wide receivers like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison is a huge help for any young quarterback, and it will be interesting to see how Brosmer performs.
