Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell confirmed that Carson Wentz will be the backup quarterback against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon, with J.J. McCarthy serving as the emergency third quarterback.

Head Coach Kevin O'Connell has announced that Carson Wentz will serve as the team's backup QB on Sunday and that J.J. McCarthy will serve as the 3rd QB.

O'Connell says it'll be a week-to-week thing as far as the backup QB spot goes. pic.twitter.com/Uw6yYAkBSm

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 9, 2026

What’s interesting about what O’Connell said is he will evaluate week-to-week.

“Carson [Wentz] will be the backup on Sunday, and J.J. [McCarthy] will obviously be the third guy. And really, I’m looking at that right now, Kevin, as a week-to-week thing,” said O’Connell.

J.J. McCarthy is the emergency QB3 for Vikings vs. Packers

It’s a decision that we’ve long expected to happen. McCarthy’s performance during training camp and the preseason was poor, and something you couldn’t trust to play in a regular season game. It’s frustrating to watch, epsecially since it appears that he’s regressed to a worse player than we saw in his first training camp as a rookie in 2024.

O’Connell making this a week-to-week proposition is interesting. You could take it that he’s doing what he can to keep McCarthy’s trade value as high as possible by keeping that level of ambiguity in there. The flip side is that he may want to have it that way so McCarthy has an attainable goal to work towards.

“It’s a progression,” said O’Connell. “It’s his mindset and his confidence level based upon work that can now be done with no pressure on him, and he’s still two snaps away. So he’s also got to still prepare. Even today, [McCarthy] had some great questions regarding the game plan, bouncing around. He’s still a beacon of energy on this team, and those traits are always going to be there for him.”

Will this path end up working for McCarthy? That remains to be seen on a multitude of levels. While things haven’t gone well, it’s about how McCarthy responds to it at this point, and the hope is does so in a positive manner.