Vikings placing Carson Wentz on injured reserve opens a gaping hole on Minnesota’s roster behind J.J. McCarthy with limited options to fill it

Finding a replacement isn’t the easiest thing to do during the season.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Dec 24, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) looks on from the bench during the second quarter against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.
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The Minnesota Vikings are expecting the return of J.J. McCarthy on Sunday afternoon against the Detroit Lions, and it’s going to be incredibly welcomed by both the franchise and fanbase. It’s good that McCarthy is healthy, but it’s also unfortunate that his backup is now out for the season, as the Vikings placed Carson Wentz on season-ending injured reserve on Monday.

Wentz didn’t just gut out a shoulder injury, it was a brutal one.

Being that we are about halfway through the season, finding a new backup quarterback is going to be a tough challenge for the Vikings. Where could they turn to? It’s a limited pool they can work with, even more so when I wrote about finding the next backup earlier this season, with most of them coming from practice squads.

Minnesota Vikings backup quarterback candidates

Desmond Ridder

Ridder isn’t the most exciting quarterback out there, but he has what only one other quarterback on this list has: he was in the building this season. Having that experience with this team and coaching staff is important when it comes to adding a backup quarterback for the back half of the year. The hope is any of these guys wouldn’t have to play, but if Ridder had to, he does have experience as a starting quarterback.

Taylor Heinicke

Another guy with starting quarterback experience is Heinicke. He got his start in the NFL with the Vikings, and nearly had his first chance to start back in 2016 after Teddy Bridgewater dislocated his knee right before the season started. However, he was dealing with an injury himself, after hurting his ankle by kicking glass to breaking into his friend’s apartment after getting locked out. He’s a stalwart quarterback with enough guts in his playstyle to continue throwing down the field like head coach Kevin O’Connell likes to do.

Easton Stick

Stick is currently on the Atlanta Falcons practice squad, and has been a serviceable backup for his entire career. He’s also mobile, which is a good thing with the state of the offensive line like it is. It would also be quite a story to have Stick succeed Wentz at North Dakota State and with the Vikings

Kyle Trask

Trask is one of the few quarterbacks available for the Vikings to sign off the free agent market. There is a real chance that quarterbacks may choose to stay with their teams, as the Vikings could just choose to move on from the third quarterback after a short time. Trask never caught on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as the one chance he had to win the starting job he got beaten out by Baker Mayfield and was released at final cuts.

Brett Rypien

Rypien is the second quarterback on this list who has been in the Vikings’ building this year, and that is a crucial aspect. The Vikings couldn’t end up signing Rypien back when McCarthy went down because he was on the Cincinnati Bengals, but he got released once they traded for Joe Flacco. It wouldn’t be an exciting signing, but none of these are in that classification.

Kirk Cousins

This would be the biggest decision for the Vikings thus far. Adding Cousins to the roster at this point would be a huge deal, and one that many wouldn’t agree with. Having him on the roster would be a huge deal for many reasons, but the biggest would be showing a lack of confidence in where McCarthy is at.

Not only would Cousins bring with him a hefty salary, but it would also cost draft pick compensation, which is far from ideal for a franchise that doesn’t have a lot of. From a public relations standpoint, this would be the opposite of what the Adam Thielen trade was in August.

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