Our Quarterbacks

I'm good with Wentz on the roster.

He at least knows the playbook for us...He says he's way more comfortable now vs y.ago.

It’s preseason and very small sample sizes, so I just hope as many players can remain healthy as possible. Otherwise, not much to glean from preseason…

For instance….these are the passer ratings for the rookie QBs, lmao. As you can imagine, the online X fanboys are already printing Super Bowl tickets and the media has already crowned them:

Rookie QBs passer rating through 1 game

Drew Allar: 154.8
Carson Beck: 125.4
Ty Simpson: 125.0
Fernando Mendoza: 100.3
Haynes King: 95.2
Cade Klubnik: 94.9
Jalon Daniels: 88.5
Garrett Nussmeier: 80.6 pic.twitter.com/sfaVPeh376

— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) August 15, 2026

comet52 wrote:

These are my thoughts after a very limited sample of exhibition game action. All thoughts to be served with a grain of salt!Kyler - he looked about like I expected. Didn't set the world on fire, but he can deliver the ball when he needs to. I think KOC went run heavy to avoid contact for his #1, no need to put him in harm's way for a nothing game. He needs all those #1 camp reps to get better timing down with his targets and keep learning this offense. He should look better as the season goes on and that stuff settles in.JJM - well surprisingly I thought he looked better in one area, which was delivering the ball on time from a clean pocket. Last year he struggled even with that. His accuracy is still suspect but again, maybe a little better from a clean pocket.The problem is when he's under pressure. He honestly to me looks like he might have regressed and he was already really bad. His go-to move when it turns chaotic is a sidearm sling from his upper body, with no base or discernable footwork at all. This is going to be an off-target ball or an interception 90% of the time in the NFL.I don't know how you fix that, even if he were playing all the games and he's likely to just be practicing. I maintain that the best thing for him would be to go play in the CFL or USFL where he could get constant live reps for some team and learn to play under pressure. If that learning is possible, I don't know if it is.Carson - was exactly what I expected. This guy can look like an all-pro on one play and a total dud on the next. He is a roller coaster and it's not game to game or even half to half or series to series, it's like every other play. He's good enough to backup but he's not leading anyone to a title if he has to take over a season for an injured guy. Right now I'd put him slightly above JJ for #2 but honestly that is only because he can in fact deliver under pressure more often than JJ and has a ton of experience in the NFL.Max Gopher - ya gotta love our little Golden Gopher but he seems somewhat snakebitten. He gets in a game and throws the underhanded pick six in Seattle, or has 3 net yards passing against Detroit, or plays one series today and goes out with an injury. I think he eventually will do a KOC path and become a QB coach somewhere. I like him but I don't think he's destined to even be a backup in the NFL.

I'd call this a pretty fair assessment from my perspective as well. Im not sure from that initial run heavy drive if KM is the man or not, need more, a lot more, to say we have a legit QB1. Wentz looked the best IMO, but he was seeing their 3s so...

I would say move Wentz to 2 and let him compete at times with KM. KM still needs all the reps he can handle, but Wentz is clearly better than JJM. If the season goes to shit, then elevate JJM and let him figure shit out, or go down in flames on the field.

StickierBuns wrote:

It’s preseason and very small sample sizes, so I just hope as many players can remain healthy as possible. Otherwise, not much to glean from preseason…
For instance….these are the passer ratings for the rookie QBs, lmao. As you can imagine, the online X fanboys are already printing Super Bowl tickets and the media has already crowned them:
https://x.com/underdognfl/status/2088771904282751476?s=46&t=ohFAAgt56m6anXyDpx1btQ

JJ McCarthy's passer rating against the Raiders in 2024: 116.8

purplefaithful wrote:

I'm good with Wentz on the roster.
He at least knows the playbook for us...He says he's way more comfortable now vs y.ago.

I'm happy we have him. I'm just no longer convinced he's happy as a clam being QB3. It's interesting to me that QB1 and QB3 grew up Viking fans. Not just casual fans either, but jersey-wearing, purple-bleeding, cry-when-they-lose fans.

MaroonBells wrote:

JJ McCarthy's passer rating against the Raiders in 2024: 116.8

Yep….. we enjoy our football here on the board, of course, but preseason really tells you absolutely nothing about what kind of player they will end up being.

StickierBuns wrote:

Yep….. we enjoy our football here on the board, of course, but preseason really tells you absolutely nothing about what kind of player they will end up being.

Ty Simpson might be legit lol!

I liked the first team offense running game

D rooks reminded that its not just QB's that take time to find their footing.

I was very hard on Carson Wentz last season, but after getting the details of what he played through last year and seeing his consistency so far every day of camp, I have a ton of respect for 11. pic.twitter.com/FfbuFODKS0

— Jason Harmon (@JasonHarmonNFL) August 16, 2026

To be honest I trust Wentz more than JJM

I just want to know what the #@$# happened to this guy?

Don't move Wentz to the primary backup as long as McCarthy is on the roster. We know what Wentz is and he's at the end. McCarthy is 23 and needs reps and in game experience.

MaroonBells wrote:

I just want to know what the #@$# happened to this guy?
https://twitter.com/MichFootballBEL/status/1822438612278878594

Million dollar question. He went through his reads, stepped up in the pocket, delivers a clean ball, and went on to the next play as such. Something happened with his head. Maybe KOC is an issue here.

MaroonBells wrote:

I just want to know what the #@$# happened to this guy?
https://twitter.com/MichFootballBEL/status/1822438612278878594

I still contend....nothing, outside of freak injuries and a head coach who has been piss poor at best in his development

supafreak84 wrote:

I still contend....nothing, outside of freak injuries and a head coach who has been piss poor at best in his development

Well, KOC answering to the Wilfs and not Teasley should tell you everything you need. KOC is feeling heat for sure. I tend to agree that KOC hasn't done many favors for JJ. I am a KOC believer as well. I think JJ has done enough for him to be in the spot that he is in, I am not blaming it all on KOC. I am just saying that KOC might be a little bit bigger of an issue in the JJ fail than he will admit.

LaConfora floating it out there that Philly would likely be a potential suitor in a "bargain bin" type move if the Vikings look to move McCarthy.

Even more of a reason to not trade him

Vanguard83 wrote:

To be honest I trust Wentz more than JJM

Hell, I might trust him more than KM, although there's a lot of reps between now and game 1 for KM to get better, but I didn't see anything from KM that suggests he shouldnt he in a competition with somebody for that 1 spot, apparently JJM isn't that guy, but Wentz still looks like he can sling it, and shows good poise.

MaroonBells wrote:

I just want to know what the #@$# happened to this guy?
https://twitter.com/MichFootballBEL/status/1822438612278878594

His "mechanics" were fixed.

"you know that thing you've been doing your whole life, at IMG and Michigan that made you successful ? Do it THIS way instead"

supafreak84 wrote:

I still contend....nothing, outside of freak injuries and a head coach who has been piss poor at best in his development

I guess I would disagree.

I think we saw a kid playing his first preseason game in the big leagues against the Raiders and no doubt he was experiencing a rush of adrenaline. It's clear to me at this point that his best skill is 2-minute drill, aka he plays best when he doesn't have to think, just act. High adrenaline time. But most of the game isn't played at that speed. Unfortunately he can't take meditation breaks in the end zone between plays. He was probably on an adrenal high that whole afternoon.

But in that game he was showing the same throwing motion he shows now - a tendency to sidearm and throw from the upper body and not always from solid footwork/base. When he's under pressure in the pocket it gets worse, it breaks down badly at times. Is this fixable? I don't know. It's not really Kevin O'Connell's job anyway, it's the QB coach's job. Or the guy he saw this offseason who was supposedly working on that.

I think the idea of "development" is maybe overrated here. To me the Vikings years-long problems with finding a franchise QB are mostly about having weak draft slots and even weaker general managers making the picks. And owners who have no patience. IMO the closest we've come to a franchise guy in the last 30 years was Teddy. Some would argue Daunte but for various reasons I'd disagree with that. But Teddy's injury and what turned out to be a somewhat limited arm killed that scenario.

Unfortunately JJM seems to have suffered from some immaturity which contributed to a behind the scenes rift with the coach. I can blame KOC for a lot of things, like super questionable in-game decisions, but I never saw JJM predraft as a high 1st round type of guy. Too many question marks coming out of college where he didn't throw it that much.

Thus I think that Viking fans have sorta been setup with overly inflated expectations about him, particularly by media numbnuts like Thor Nystrom, and now are swallowing the unfortunate reality like a very bitter pill. If anything I'd blame O'Connell/Kwesi for settling for less once Drake Maye was out of the picture. So many guys in that draft were great talents that we could have taken and just stuck with Sam.

Vanguard83 wrote:

To be honest I trust Wentz more than JJM

No question about it

Vanguard83 wrote:

His "mechanics" were fixed.
"you know that thing you've been doing your whole life, at IMG and Michigan that made you successful ? Do it THIS way instead"

Exactly what I've been saying as well. Fans seem to think that throwing fastballs your entire life and then suddenly being asked to take velocity off the ball is some simple adjustment you can make overnight.

Did anyone ask Brett Favre to take something off his throws? 😂 The guy fired the ball all over the field for his entire career. He also threw a ton of touchdowns...and a ton of interceptions. That was who he was as a quarterback.

What I saw in this game was McCarthy trying to do almost the exact opposite of what he's done his entire life. He's trying to take velocity off the ball, add touch and throw more changeups instead of fastballs. Some of those balls are going to look like floaters while he's figuring it out.

And here's the part that seems to get lost: that adjustment doesn't just affect the throw. It affects timing, anticipation and your entire internal clock. If you've spent your entire life knowing exactly how long it takes your fastball to get from Point A to Point B, and suddenly you're changing the speed of that pitch, you're going to have to recalibrate everything around it.

You're literally asking a 23-year-old QB to alter something that has been ingrained in him his entire life. That's not going to magically become second nature after a handful of practices and preseason snaps.

And I'm not saying the adjustment will work. Maybe it won't. Maybe his accuracy will continue to be a problem. Maybe the coaches ultimately decide he isn't the guy. But I don't understand how anyone can watch him trying to make a fundamental adjustment to his throwing mechanics and conclude that we've now seen the finished product.

I'm probably one of the most impatient people here, but for some reason I still see something in McCarthy that makes me want to see more. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll get much of that now with Murray at the helm and a fanbase ready to dissect every McCarthy throw while simultaneously celebrating Wentz for looking "poised" after throwing lame ducks into the end zone and having two balls knocked down at the line. 😂

If Wentz makes a couple nice throws, it's "veteran poise." If JJ makes a bad throw while trying to change something he's literally never had to change before, it's "he's broken."

That's the part I just don't buy.