The Minnesota Vikings are going to have a quarterback competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, and it’s bound to be heated.

Understanding how this will end up playing out will be an interesting one, as nobody truly knows how long head coach Kevin O’Connell will let this play out, nor do they know what criteria he will use.

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer provided a little bit of that context ahead of the team reporting to training camp.

“Last year the intention was to put competition in the room with J.J. It didn’t work out that way because both Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones found better opportunities to become a long-term starting quarterback for a team elsewhere, so they pivoted and decided we’re putting all of our eggs in the J.J. McCarthy basket,” said Breer.

J.J. McCarthy is “off scholarship”

It wasn’t the easiest first two years for McCarthy. He suffered a torn meniscus, forcing him to miss his entire rookie season. He then followed it up in 2025 with 10 starts, going 6-4 but ranking very poorly in many underlying metrics, including EPA/play.

Breer mentioned one other element that is important to the conversation, as McCarthy apparently lost his confidence.

“We know how that worked. Now he is effectively off scholarship. There will be no like tie goes to the former first-round pick anymore,” said Breer. “I think what they’re hoping is that J.J. McCarthy can somehow regain his confidence through competition, and we’ll see what happens. But I think the biggest piece is, can he go out there? Can he play fast? Can he play confident? Because they really felt like he lost his confidence last year, and that can be a tough thing for a quarterback to get back.

“If that’s the case, we’re probably talking two weeks into camp about Kyler Murray going forward as the Vikings’ starting quarterback officially. If J.J. McCarthy can regain some confidence, then we’ll see, because I think Kyler’s a good quarterback. I don’t know that Kyler is like this infallible answer at the position. I think that there’s definitely opportunity there.”

Losing confidence is a huge deal for a quarterback, and it could explain the entirety of the quarterback situation in Minnesota. If he ends up losing the job, it would all add up.