J.J. McCarthy’s comments at Minnesota Vikings OTAs raise a serious red flag about QB competition

We finally got to hear from the Minnesota Vikings quarterback on Wednesday, and J.J. McCarthy’s comments are fascinating.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Jan 4, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) walks off the field after the game against the Green Bay Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Jan 4, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) walks off the field after the game against the Green Bay Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium. Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Vikings are an interesting team to talk about going into the 2026 season.

One of the biggest reasons why the Vikings are so fascinating is the quarterback position. It’s widely expected that it will be a competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, and the media got their first exposure to both players this summer at TCO Performance Center.

J.J. McCarthy’s comments raise questions about the competition

We heard from both players on how things are going within the competition. McCarthy was honest about his feelings on Murray being signed, saying the right things about the Vikings signing Murray and calling it an organizational decision. We did get something interesting from McCarthy, and it showed his true colors.

You can tell from this quote that McCarthy is not happy about the presence of Murray. It’s hard to blame him, considering the Vikings drafted McCarthy at 10th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. He also started just 10 games out of a possible 35, and those games weren’t exactly great.

In those games, McCarthy was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league. Over his 10 starts, he ranked among 34 qualifying quarterbacks very poorly in the important metrics:

MeetricStatRank
EPA/Play-0.10133rd
Success Rate43.8%32nd
CPOE-5.734th
Completion Percentage64.5%31st
Air Yards9.07th

There is an interesting aspect to the discussion as well. The Athletic’s Alec Lewis highlighted that McCarthy’s process was far from consistent, which is a tough thing to parse out.

Then there’s the consistency piece: how McCarthy shows up to work every day and how his habits progress in his third season. The Vikings have a high standard at the position. They want the starting quarterback to lift the tide for the entire team in 2026. This requires a level of discipline, which was up and down last season for McCarthy.
The Athletic’s Alec Lewis

The consistency element is a big part of the maturity aspect that the Vikings want him to improve upon this year. These quotes aren’t going to do much in that department.

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