Vikings Predicted to Move on From J.J. McCarthy Sooner than Expected

The Minnesota Vikings are coming up on an important year for the franchise, and head coach Kevin O’Connell is leading up what’s considered a very strong roster under an essentially rookie quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. After missing out on his entire rookie season, McCarthy is back in the fold and expected to carry the team for the 2025 season.

The Vikings drafted McCarthy in April 2024 with the No. 10 pick. Now, after a year of rehabbing, he’s back and, not to put pressure on the guy, but has something to prove. Now, one NFL analyst is predicting the how much McCarthy is in the hot seat, and even though his gig isn’t in danger right now, he doesn’t name him as one of the most secure quarterbacks in the league.

Analyst Predicts How Much Time the Vikings Will Give J.J. McCarthy

In a May 9 article for Bleacher Report, NFL expert and analyst Brad Gagnon describes each team’s urgency after 2025 NFL draft to land a solid quarterback. “Now that the NFL draft is done and the quarterback carousel has almost stopped spinning for 2025, it’s time to take the temperature of every signal-caller situation in the league,” Gagnon notes in the feature.

For his selections, Gagnon looked “primarily at age, trajectory, experience, contract, injury history and the state of the team, let’s break down every squad’s QB-need level with a single sentence for each.”

He names the team with the biggest need for a quarterback as the Pittsburgh Steelers. Obviously, any team that’s relying on the feels and decisions of Aaron Rodgers is not in a good situation.

When it comes to the Vikings, Gagnon labels the Vikings as “somewhere in between” when it comes to looking for a new franchise quarterback. He doesn’t say they’ll move on right away from him, but he also doesn’t name McCarthy as one of the quarterbacks who is solid with their team for years to come.

“J.J. McCarthy is essentially a rookie after missing all of last season with a torn ACL,” Gagnon stated in the piece. “When you spend a high first-round pick on a quarterback, he deserves at least two full seasons to make his case.”

A Favorite Vikings Pick from the Draft

Now that the draft has wrapped up, insiders are grading each team’s choices on all 257 picks. In a May 9 piece for ESPN, a panel of experts discuss some of the biggest moments of the draft. “We asked more than a dozen of our NFL experts to weigh in with their opinions on everything that went down in Green Bay,” they state.

For the Vikings, NFL analyst Field Yates loves the Vikings going with guard Donovan Jackson at their No. 24 pick.

“Jackson was 20th overall on my board, as I am extremely bullish on his positional versatility, power, toughness and overall play temperament,” Yates states. “The Vikings began this offseason saying they would get their trenches in order and have done it.”

The NFL season will begin with the NFL Kickoff Game on Thursday, September 4.