Former Michigan star J.J. McCarthy has had a very weird start to his NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings.
After leading the Wolverines to a national championship in college and a perfect record against arch rival Ohio State, McCarthy entered the pros with a ton of hype as a Top 10 draft pick. However, he sat out his entire rookie season with a torn meniscus.
Entering the 2025 campaign, the Vikings turned the keys of the franchise to him in spite of a fantastic season from Sam Darnold and also providing a short-term home for Daniel Jones. Both of those quarterbacks are having incredible years in Seattle and Indianapolis respectively, leading surprise teams to great record.
As for McCarthy? His 61.7 quarterback rating is the worst of any starter in the league by far. He has just 6 TDs and 8 INTs and has missed several games once again due to a high ankle sprain injury.
But more than that, the vibes around McCarthy have been weird all season, from how he was really doing in training camp to his injury status with the team in the regular season. We all found out backup quarterback Carson Wentz was actually trying to play through a torn labrum before finally going on injured reserve after taking a beating from the Los Angeles Chargers. Once Wentz was sat down, suddenly J.J. McCarthy was healthy enough to play once again.
Add it all up, and maybe it’s not a complete shock what Dianna Russini said on the Hoge & Jahns podcast on Wednesday.
After a lengthy discussion with the Chicago Bears reporters about how the Vikings have tried to best support J.J. McCarthy, and their decision to go all-in with him in spite of the other options at their disposal, Russini decided to ask the question that nobody else seemingly is ready to ask.
Is it already the beginning of the end of the J.J. McCarthy era in Minnesota?
“I think the question that we got to start asking. And this is going to get a headline… is J.J. McCarthy going to be a Minnesota Viking quarterback next season,” Russini said.
Please, give us those headlines! That’s what keeps us all in business!
As the hosts audibly exhaled and simultaneously said “wow,” Russini instantly knew that maybe the rest of the NFL world wasn’t quite ready to have that conversation yet.
“Damn it! I didn’t want that reaction. I was hoping you were just going to say ‘we were asking the same thing!'” Russini exclaimed.
Dianna Russini is one of the best and most well-connected reporters covering the NFL. And as she clearly states in the extended discussion, there is more than enough smoke for there to be fire here. It’s certainly not out of the question for the Vikings to be worried about the future of J.J. McCarthy.
This is a franchise that went 14-3 last year with Sam Darnold. They have the talent to win now. Sitting at 4-6 with an injury-prone player in his first full season who has not yet shown he can get the job done consistently is not where they want to be. And at the very least, it should be something the team has to be ready to truly explore in the offseason. And maybe given these comments from Russini, they already are.