Not long after the Minnesota Vikings signed former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray to a team-friendly one-year contract, the Vikings brought veteran signal-caller Carson Wentz back to the organization.
Understandably, those moves left some wondering if 2024 first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy has a future with the Vikings. It appears McCarthy will get an opportunity to prove his worth to his current employer later this summer.
Vikings following their plan amid rumors about the future of J.J. McCarthy
For a piece published on Monday morning, Vikings reporter Alec Lewis of The Athletic touched upon the state of the team’s quarterback room ahead of springtime workouts.
“Wentz’s addition is not a referendum on 23-year-old J.J. McCarthy’s future, according to team sources, but it is an exclamation point on the team’s plan,” Lewis wrote. “The Vikings wanted competition. And they preferred to find it in a way that fit within their salary-cap constraints. They deemed Murray the most talented quarterback available…”
The Vikings signed Murray to a one-year contract worth $1.3M because the Cardinals owed him $38M in fully guaranteed money for next season. Shortly after he inked that agreement, ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano insisted that the Vikings “are not ready to give up on” McCarthy. While many view Murray as the favorite to win the Minnesota starting job, the club’s lack of a massive financial commitment should allow head coach Kevin O’Connell to go with his preferred signal-caller come September.
Will Carson Wentz be Minnesota’s QB2 over J.J. McCarthy?
Before Wentz re-signed with the Vikings, multiple stories linked him with a New York Jets team that currently has veteran journeyman Geno Smith atop the depth chart. Some have assumed Wentz must have been promised something by O’Connell to return to a team that seemingly won’t be in a rush to give him playing time as long as Murray and McCarthy stay healthy.
“Wentz, 33, had multiple opportunities with perhaps clearer paths to playing time,” Lewis explained. “Why, then, would he choose Minnesota? It was not because he got any impression that the Vikings would be moving on from McCarthy, one league source said. Instead, Wentz came back because of his faith in O’Connell, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and the team’s core players.”
Lewis added that the Vikings “are optimistic that McCarthy will show up committed to proving he’s made a major leap” after he spent a portion of the offseason training with former NFL quarterback John Beck. If McCarthy fails to make that kind of leap, whispers suggesting he will never play another meaningful down for the Vikings will likely only grow louder.