The Minnesota Vikings are set to take on the Philadelphia Eagles in a key Week 7 showdown for both teams. Through the first six weeks of the 2025 NFL season, both squads have looked like potential contenders in the NFC.
Heading into this week’s game, the Vikings hold a 3-2 record. As for the Eagles, they are now 4-2 and have lost two straight games. This will be a very important showdown between two teams who could use a big win to improve their standing in the conference.
Ahead of this week’s game, there have been a lot of questions surrounding Minnesota’s quarterback situation.
JJ McCarthy was the team’s starter for the first two games of the season. However, he went down with an ankle injury that has kept him out since then. Carson Wentz has been the team’s starter for the last three games.
Prior to this week’s matchup, the Vikings have received a disappointing update about when McCarthy could return to the field.
Darren Wolfson of KSTP reported that he “can’t imagine” McCarthy will be ready to go for Week 8 against the Los Angeles Chargers on a short week. Kevin O’Connell has been clear that he would like McCarthy to get a full week of practice in before making his return to the field.
Assuming that does end up being the case, McCarthy would not be ready to return to the field until Week 9 in November. If O’Connell were to revert back to the second-year quarterback as his starter, Minnesota would have McCarthy under center on the road against the Detroit Tigers on November 2.
In his first two career starts, McCarthy completed 58.5 percent of his pass attempts for 301 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions. Since Wentz took over as the starter, he has thrown for 759 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions, while completing 69 percent of his passes.
There is a very legitimate chance that O’Connell could simply decide to stick with Wentz even when McCarthy is ready to play. The Vikings could view the veteran signal caller as giving them a better chance to win now.
Only time will tell, but the questions surrounding the quarterback situation in Minnesota will continue on. This isn’t great news for the young quarterback, but at least the Vikings have remained competitive and look like they could be a playoff team once again.
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