Arguably the biggest storyline that is still unsolved this offseason is surrounding Aaron Rodgers and the quarterback situations in both Pittsburgh and Minnesota. Rodgers is the most high-profile free agent still left on the market, and the Vikings and the Steelers seem like the most likely destinations.
Of course, if the Vikings end up being the landing spot, the question becomes what happens to JJ McCarthy. Is he the backup? do they have a competition in camp? Could McCarthy request a trade?
As of now, it seems like McCarthy is still the favorite to be the starter in Minnesota. General manager Kewsi Adofo-Mensah is still hoping that's the case, according to Kevin Seifert of ESPN.
“Naming J.J. McCarthy the Minnesota Vikings' starting quarterback is ‘the outcome we want' and ‘the outcome we're headed towards,' general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said Wednesday in the first comments from an organizational decision-maker since the team embarked on a $300 million offseason shopping spree that included direct conversations with free agent quarterback Aaron Rodgers,” Seifert wrote.
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While Kwesi Adofo-Mensah wouldn't commit to McCarthy with 100% certainty, he did shed some light on the young quarterback and the things that he has been impressed with in the Michigan product this offseason.
“At every checkpoint, whether it been the draft process or practice until the injury and really the offseason now, he's met the bar,” Adofo-Mensah said, per Seifert. “He's exceeded our expectations at every point. So I don't have the ability to tell you what the future is, but I can tell you what I expect to be the outcome this offseason from the competition. But it's also our job to set up a quarterback room that's going to have to … provide insurance in case somebody needs to come in for a couple of games. And that's our job as a personnel department to look at all the options out there and make sure we're setting ourselves up for the best case we can.”
The Vikings seem to be out of the Rodgers business, as do the New York Giants after signing both Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson to contracts in the last week. Unless Minnesota has a change of heart when it comes to the veteran Hall-of-Famer, it looks like McCarthy will be taking the snaps with the first team when he fully recovers from his knee injury that kept him out for his entire rookie season.