NFL analyst addresses the elephant in the Vikings quarterback room that is important when it comes to Kevin O’Connell’s offense

It’s something that hasn’t gotten enough discussion

Tyler Forness NFL & College Football News Writer
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Oct 19, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) warms up before the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Vikings have a quarterback conundrum once again.

The starting quarterback going into the season was J.J. McCarthy, but he’s been out for the last five weeks, and he will be the emergency quarterback again on Thursday. With him out, Carson Wentz is now 2-2 as the starting quarterback, but the level of play as the signal caller has been brutal to say the least.

Once the Vikings get past Thursday, the job should be going to McCarthy, but the focus should be on one element of the position, according to ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky

Dan Orlovsky calls for consistency at quarterback for the Vikings

With the issues the Vikings have had with both McCarthy and Wentz this season, along with the trip overseas to Europe, consistency is the one thing the Vikings have not had this season, but it’s arguably the one thing they need the most. Orlovsky highlighted that on NFL Live, Monday afternoon.

“This team needs consistency from the quarterback position. It doesn’t need top eight quarterback play, but the roller coaster of Carson [Wentz] right now is kind of how this team is playing,” said Orlovsky. “We’ve seen Minnesota play as good as anybody in the conference, and then we’ve seen Minnesota have stretches where they look like they can get beat by anybody in the conference. And that’s kind of where Carson is right now, and it’s been for a couple of years with his career. He has moments when he looks like the guy from 2017 who was trending towards an MVP, and then he has moments when he’s hurt the football team. So, in regard to J.J., if Minnesota feels like J.J. is healthy, they have to get him at least on the field to see if he’ll provide just some consistency at the position to allow the rest of the talent on that roster to kind of carry the load.”

Orlovsky hit the nail on its head. The Vikings don’t need elite level quarterback play, they just need a baseline of success. Having that baseline is super important to having a good offense. When the offense has been humming, it’s looked like every Kevin O’Connell offense: play-action shots in the intermediate levels of the field.

If the Vikings can get that going for them, it will be huge on many levels.