After each rough performance from J.J. McCarthy, it's been fair to acknowledge that the 22-year-old quarterback is still very early in his NFL career and needs time to develop. But following Sunday's 23-6 loss by the Vikings at Lambeau Field, it's also fair to wonder how much it really matters that McCarthy has only made six starts when he's playing this poorly.
McCarthy seems to be getting worse, not better, with each passing week. And patience — at least among the fan base, if not among his coaching staff and teammates — is already wearing thin. This is rapidly becoming a bleak situation that is conjuring memories of Christian Ponder and could potentially lead to some difficult questions, maybe even before this season is over.
Last week against the Bears was probably the ugliest performance by McCarthy up to that point, at least if you grant him the excuses for his Week 2 dud against the Falcons (he missed practice that week while his son was born, and he finished the game playing through an ankle injury). This showing in Green Bay may have been even worse.
McCarthy was fine in the first half against the Packers, but it was clear that the Vikings were trying to minimize his role by running the ball at a much higher rate than Kevin O'Connell's teams typically do. He was 7 for 11 for 62 yards and a sack in an opening half where O'Connell called 12 passes and 15 runs. It was in the second half, after a special teams gaffe put the Vikings in an 11-point hole, when things fell apart.
Here's a chronological list of every McCarthy dropback in the final two quarters:
J.J. McCarthy
Kayla Wolf-Imagn Images
That's 13 dropbacks in an entire half where the Vikings were trailing by double digits on every offensive snap they took. The results were 5-for-8 passing for 25 yards and two interceptions, plus four sacks and one 10-yard rush. That brought McCarthy's total numbers for the game to 12 completions on 19 attempts for 87 yards, two picks, and five sacks. His passer rating was 34.2 (on a scale that maxes out at 158.3).
As an offense, the Vikings had NEGATIVE ONE net yards in the entire half.
"Sucks," McCarthy said as he walked to the podium for his postgame press conference. "Gotta give a lot of credit to them. They executed better than us all day today, had a great game plan, and executed that game plan better than we did. I gotta be better. I gotta do a lot of things better."
Six starts into his career, McCarthy's numbers are about as bad as it gets. He's completed 54 percent of his attempts, averaged 155 passing yards per game, and thrown 6 touchdown passes to 10 interceptions. He has a couple rushing touchdowns, but he's also taken 20 sacks and lost a fumble.
Early this season, sacks were a big issue for McCarthy. Over the past two games, he cleaned that issue up but struggled mightily with accuracy, especially against the Bears. In this game, the sack issue — caused in part by McCarthy holding onto the ball too long — came back in a big way. Turnovers have been a constant, as well. He had two interceptions in this game for the fourth time in six career starts. He's thrown at least one pick in every single one of his starts.
Another game, another Williams INT
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/vB2G6ul5l9
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 23, 2025
As noted by ESPN's Kevin Seifert, the only other Vikings QB in the last 30 years to throw multiple interceptions in three straight games is Ponder, who did so in October 2012. McCarthy is playing so poorly that comparisons to Ponder — who was a bust as the Vikings' 12th overall pick in 2011 — are unavoidable. Just look at the numbers from their first six starts:
Ponder/McCarthy through first 6 starts
Ponder: 1-5
112/199 56.3% 1,423 Yds 9TDs 8 INTs 21 Sacks
McCarthy: 2-4
86/159 54.1% 929Yds 6TDs 10 INTs 20 Sacks 2 Ru TDs pic.twitter.com/wpXW0dBXQo
— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) November 23, 2025
It's gotten to the point where some on social media have wondered if the Vikings will consider benching McCarthy, given how non-functional their offense currently is with him at quarterback. O'Connell declined to address that idea after last week's game, and he wasn't asked about it on Sunday. One question he was asked is this: "Can you win with what (McCarthy's) doing right now?"
"I think you can," O'Connell said. "I do believe that. But it does require, as a football team, not doing things that lose games."
O'Connell and various Vikings players talked about needing to play better football around McCarthy to avoid putting him in difficult situations like the one he faced in the second half against the Packers. And yes, Minnesota's young quarterback could've gotten more help from his offensive line. Yes, a trailing game script against a ferocious Packers defense is a tough place to be. But what was most concerning was how hopeless it all looked and felt when McCarthy dropped back to pass.
J.J. McCarthy
Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
After the game, McCarthy sat in a chair in the visitor's locker room and stared silently into his locker. In his press conference, which lasted around three minutes in total, he gave a standard answer for how he can improve.
"Getting on the plane and watching the film," he said. "Continuing to just stack the days and wake up every single day ready to get better. Just make small increments each and every day and continue to just perfect my craft. The weaknesses that are exposed, make sure I'm on track with those and getting back to the right spot every week."
McCarthy said his "confidence is always high, no matter what," while acknowledging the obvious, which is that he and the Vikings' offense need to "start putting some things together."
As of now, there's no reason to think the Vikings are even considering benching McCarthy and going with either undrafted rookie Max Brosmer or practice squad veteran John Wolford anytime soon. They're now functionally eliminated from the playoffs, which means the next six games have to be about seeing whether or not McCarthy can show any sort of improvement.
What's concerning is that McCarthy's first three games, which included a pair of three-touchdown performances in road wins, were collectively better than his last three games. For most of this season, there have been flashes of his upside throughout the struggles. In this game, the lone flash was a quality throw on a 19-yard completion to Justin Jefferson in the second quarter.
At this point, it feels fair to say McCarthy needs to show some level of improvement and growth over the final six games of this season in order to even keep the Vikings' starting job in 2026. Ponder made 36 starts for the Vikings and kept the job into his third season. But it's not unprecedented for a highly-drafted QB to lose the job after only one year; it happened to Josh Rosen, who the Cardinals drafted 10th overall in 2018.
Even if McCarthy does make some progress down the stretch of this season, the Vikings will almost certainly bring in a veteran QB to provide competition next offseason. But if McCarthy continues to look as hopeless and non-functional as he did on Sunday, it might just be over. And that would mean the Vikings returning to the quarterback market next spring, whether that means signing one, trading for one, or even drafting another one with what could be an early first-round pick.
It's still early for McCarthy, but if things don't turn around soon, it might start getting late very quickly.