If Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy was hoping to have a clean run at the starting quarterback role for 2026 and enter camp with the chance to take all the reps for Kevin O'Connell's team, well, that might have been dashed.
With McCarthy struggling in 2025 after coming off a season-long injury in 2024, some think the Vikings will look elsewhere in the upcoming quarterback market. After all, they had Sam Darnold and let him go.
But for Vikings executive vice president of football operations Rob Brezezinski, his latest quote at the scouting combine isn't great for McCarthy's future as the starter.
Why? Because all options are on the table.
"What we do know is we need a level of baseline quarterback play for us to be effective," Brzezinski said via The Minnesota Star Tribune's Ben Goessling. "A lot of this is, has been J.J. in an unfortunate [situation] with some of the injuries and things that he's dealt with. But we're going to explore every opportunity. We can't manufacture what's not there. So, No. 1, where are the options? Is it reciprocal? Is it financially doable? All of those things. There's just a lot of factors that go into it."
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What are the Vikings' QB options?
It might seem harsh that McCarthy could be on the outer after only two NFL seasons, one of which was ruined by injury. So, essentially, 2025 was his rookie year.
But it appears the Vikings aren't that interested in waiting for him to develop.
We've even seen rumors and reports that Kirk Cousins could be an option to return to Minnesota.
So, there will be plenty of options the Vikings can explore at quarterback if they really want to, and McCarthy's first grip on the QB1 position, once thought to be tight, now might be loosening with each passing day.
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