Will JJM be back against the Packers?

[Zanary]

If JJM is healed enough, he should play. It's better to go out on one final game, a likely win against probable backups, than for the lingering memory in the offseason to be "yeah, but he even missed the last 2 because of injury". He should want to head into January with the fans impatient for September, not in our constant offseason muddle of "who's our starting QB?

That's one of the things I wanted JJM to settle, most of all. The every-offseason speculation all over our most important position wears after so many years.

Find a good veteran challenger, get the kid healed up, but beat the sh*t out of the pukers first.

[Knucklehead]

If JJM is healed enough, he should play. It's better to go out on one final game, a likely win against probable backups, than for the lingering memory in the offseason to be "yeah, but he even missed the last 2 because of injury". He should want to head into January with the fans impatient for September, not in our constant offseason muddle of "who's our starting QB?

That's one of the things I wanted JJM to settle, most of all. The every-offseason speculation all over our most important position wears after so many years.

Find a good veteran challenger, get the kid healed up, but beat the sh*t out of the pukers first.

Agreed for the most part but given how snake bit he's been with the injuries, I'm concerned with trotting him out there behind an OL that might be missing 3 starters.

Lots of disappointments this season, but for me the biggest is that as the season concludes we still don't know if JJM can be our franchise QB.

[Montana Tom]

I've read somewhere that the Packers are considering resting a lot of their starters with the upcoming playoffs.  Win or loss against the Vikings doesn't affect their position anyways.

A big IF we beat the Packers on Sunday, the record will show that the Vikings won their last five in a row.  It won't diminish the fifth win in a row...it's still the NFL. 

And IF that were to happen (we still don't know who is starting on Sunday), the record would show that JJ won two games, Brosmer won two games and the fifth game is a ??

The record would also show that it was BFlo's defense who really won all five.

[purplefaithful]

Kevin O’Connell says winning and playing QB J.J. McCarthy against the Packers are important building blocks for next season.

Any amateur NFL draft expert with the ability to google Mel Kiper Jr. can tell you the tangible drawback of teams being good at the end of a bad season.

So a crazy idea came to mind. Ask Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell what’s so good about not being bad at the end of an ugly season that officially fell short of the playoffs three weeks ago?

“Getting from 4-8 to 9-8 … is not going to count for much in January, that’s for sure,” said O’Connell, “but it’s going to matter moving forward, in my opinion.”
There’s nothing tangible to support that notion, K.O. It’s just a gut feeling. Your opinion. It’s also spot-on right.

So is O’Connell’s desire to play J.J. McCarthy in the season finale against the Packers on Jan. 4. The second-year quarterback who’s missed 25½ of a possible 34 games because of four injuries needs to play if he’s even remotely able to grip the football with his injured throwing hand.

“We’re still in that wildly significant time where any and all reps and experience [matter],” O’Connell said of McCarthy. “It’s another home game at U.S. Bank Stadium. All those things are important.”

We’re also in that wildly significant time where McCarthy just needs to start stacking games that eventually lead to him switching his narrative and proving to teammates, coaches and everyone building a team around him that he can bounce back, play hurt and stay on the field. Sounds harsh, but the NFL is harsh.

There’s no better time for McCarthy’s first prove-it game than the last one before this franchise starts disassembling this year’s team and reassembling next year’s team.

Draftniks come armed with a tangible rebuttal, of course.

Had the Vikings given up and were 4-12 instead of 8-8, they’d have the seventh overall pick right now. Instead, they have the 17th pick heading into a season finale in which they’ll host a playoff-bound Packers team that’s locked into the NFC’s seventh seed. A win and the Vikings could be drafting 18th overall, the worst pick that a non-playoff team can earn.

A top-10 pick is nice but comes with no guarantee of success. And it’s certainly not worth what people on both sides of the walls of Vikings headquarters would be thinking, saying and feeling about this team if this were the 53 Stooges finishing out a four-win season.

Being 3-2 in the division, 3-0 since being eliminated from the playoffs and 9-0 in the last nine December games are important mental building blocks for 2026.

“We set out on this journey in some pretty dark times a few weeks back,” O’Connell said. “I laid out the challenge to our team. I laid out the challenge to our coaching staff to navigate this the right way. … To their credit, they’ve answered the challenge.”

O’Connell paused before adding, “I think we’ve learned a lot about the makeup of our organization.”

Winning. Who knew it could be such a good thing even in bad times?

Strib

[MaroonBells]

"Draftniks come armed with a tangible rebuttal, of course. Had the Vikings given up and were 4-12 instead of 8-8, they’d have the seventh overall pick right now. Instead, they have the 17th pick heading into a season finale in which they’ll host a playoff-bound Packers team that’s locked into the NFC’s seventh seed. A win and the Vikings could be drafting 18th overall, the worst pick that a non-playoff team can earn."

Real draftniks, those who follow the draft like a religion, know that the draft is massively overrated, that 90% of the players drafted never make it, and that it really doesn't matter too much where your pick is the first round. Yes, of course, you improve your odds the higher you draft, but not nearly as much as people think. 

Think about it....

Dallas Turner - 17th
Addison - 23rd
Darrisaw - 23rd
Jefferson - 22nd
Harvin - 22nd
Moss - 21st
Greenway - 17th
Rhodes - 25th

Trae Waynes - 11th
Kalil - 4th
Ponder - 12th
Williamson - 7th

Yes, we've had several top 12 picks that have hit too: McKinnie, Barr, Culpepper, KW, Peterson, but the connection between draft slot and NFL impact is rickety at best.

[purplefaithful]

McCarthy was listed as a limited participant on the Dec. 31 practice report. He described himself as “day-to-day” during his post-practice news conference.

McCarthy also said his hand injury was “a multitude of things. Things that happen over the year,” and described the fracture as “one of them.”

He said adrenaline affected when he recognized pain in his hand against the Giants, but he started to notice it when he came to the sideline following his 12-yard touchdown scramble in the second quarter. On the Vikings’ next drive, McCarthy returned to the field and fumbled, resulting in a defensive touchdown.

“It was a great learning lesson for me to handle that situation a lot better in the future,” McCarthy said. “If I don’t feel like I can go or there’s any sort of gray, just take it into halftime and regroup from there.”

McCarthy’s grip strength has been cited as the key factor to whether or not he plays against the Green Bay Packers in Sunday’s season finale.

He was not seen wearing a glove during practice and did not appear to have his hand taped either.

“I felt really good today,” McCarthy said. “I felt like the ball was spinning.”

McCarthy went through all the standard machinations of the early portion of practice, including throwing at a net, snapping with center Michael Jurgens and passing to members of staff. He did not appear to have trouble with any of the actions.

Strib

[StickierBuns]

Full participant yesterday, looks strong he'll be a go Sunday. I think Green Bay is starting their 3rd string QB? Not sure how much can be gleaned, but a decent outing for JJM will go down just fine regardless. Maybe O'Neill is back as well. My only concern is this 'Jefferson only needs 53 yards' stuff is going to put JJ in the mindset of force feeding him and that won't be good.

[JimmyinSD]

Full participant yesterday, looks strong he'll be a go Sunday. I think Green Bay is starting their 3rd string QB? Not sure how much can be gleaned, but a decent outing for JJM will go down just fine regardless. Maybe O'Neill is back as well. My only concern is this 'Jefferson only needs 53 yards' stuff is going to put JJ in the mindset of force feeding him and that won't be good.

There are going to be times where he will need to target his playmakers,  this situation might help him better learn what open is in the NFL.  There is certainly nothing bad that can come from this situation IMO as I think his confidence has shown it can handle throwing a few picks.

[pattersaur]

I'd be very surprised if he plays but wow it's looking like that *might* happen. Every game and rep is so critical it's funny.

If McCarthy chucks 4 picks and takes 6 sacks it's gonna be a loooooooong offseason haha, but we gotta know. Any data is valuable so I really hope he can go, and I hope he can smoke the pack.

Selfishly, I'll be 10x more excited for the game if he's playing versus Brosmer.

[purplefaithful]

Full participant yesterday, looks strong he'll be a go Sunday. I think Green Bay is starting their 3rd string QB? Not sure how much can be gleaned, but a decent outing for JJM will go down just fine regardless. Maybe O'Neill is back as well. My only concern is this 'Jefferson only needs 53 yards' stuff is going to put JJ in the mindset of force feeding him and that won't be good.

There are going to be times where he will need to target his playmakers,  this situation might help him better learn what open is in the NFL.  There is certainly nothing bad that can come from this situation IMO as I think his confidence has shown it can handle throwing a few picks.

This is a big hill for JJM to climb...He's got to find peace with getting the playmaker a chance with nfl size windows. He may look covered, but you still gotta give him a chance.