Longterm uncertainty at the quarterback position has defined head coach Kevin O’Connell’s four-year tenure with the Minnesota Vikings, which is the cruelest sort of irony for a franchise that has spent all its best years in the NFL on the brink of a championship it has never quite been able to grasp.
O’Connell is a former professional QB and an offensive genius, with a Super Bowl ring as the coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams in 2021 to prove it. That makes it all the more strange that an inability to establish the game’s most important position is what has defined his inconsistent four-year tenure in Minnesota to this point.
But the Vikings have a chance to change all of that by taking one big risk this summer: bidding their 2027 first-round pick on QB Brendan Sorsby in the league’s supplemental draft next month.
Sorsby lost his NCAA eligibility for good last week, after appeals from both the player and the Texas Tech Red Raiders, his prospective team in 2026, failed to reinstate him. The quarterback made more than 40 wagers on the Indiana Hoosiers in 2022 while a true freshman at the program, though never bet on his team to lose and never bet on a game in which he played.
Sorsby attended inpatient rehabilitation for gambling addiction this offseason, but that, plus his legal efforts, were not enough to shake the consequences of his actions. As such, he will forfeit the $5 million Texas Tech was set to pay him for the upcoming campaign and look to turn pro in July.
Brendan Sorsby’s Value in NFL Supplemental Draft Hard to Figure, Liable to Vary Between Teams
GettyQuarterback Brendan Sorsby.
The supplemental draft is a simple process, in which teams interested in a player who has declared for it enter a bid with a round value attached. The league awards the player in question to the franchise that makes the highest bid, and that organization forfeits its corresponding selection in the following draft, which will take place in April of 2027 in this case.
Ben Solak of ESPN wrote last week that he would afford Sorsby second-round value as a pure prospect in a vacuum, even if some such players (Ty Simpson of Alabama to the Rams at No. 13 this year, for instance) happen to occasionally jump into the first 32 picks.
“Just because a quarterback would have gone Round 1 in a regular draft (with no off-field considerations) doesn’t mean he has a Round 1 grade,” Solak wrote. “The QB-neediness of the league at large yanks these players into the first round. I put a second round grade on Sorsby personally.”
Solak added that Sorsby’s gambling/character issues in the modern NFL — where sports betting is pervasive and a huge part of every day goings on from the perspectives of the fans, media and the league itself — might render the QB worth a third-rounder in the supplemental draft due to the heightened risk he presents.
However, before the rulings came down that shut Sorsby out of the collegiate game for good, Todd McShay of The Ringer said he would risk a first-round pick on Sorsby this summer.
McShay named Sorsby among four QBs in the 2027 class worthy of such a risk, regardless of a lack of information about how others might develop over the course of the coming year. That list also included Arch Manning, Dante Moore and LaNorris Sellers.
Kyler Murray Was Great Signing for Vikings in 2026, but His Future Remains Murky Beyond Upcoming Season
GettyQuarterback Kyler Murray of the Minnesota Vikings.
Whether a team should risk a first-rounder on Sorsby comes down simply to what its QB situation looks like heading into the upcoming season, and how that situation is likely to present when April 2027 rolls around.
Minnesota made arguably the best move in all of free agency by signing QB Kyler Murray to a one-year contract at the league minimum of $1.3 million, adding a two-time Pro Bowler at the game’s most important position, which was also the Vikings’ area of greatest need/uncertainty.
Murray signed that deal because the Arizona Cardinals still owe him almost $37 million after releasing him in March. But regardless of how well he plays during the upcoming campaign, his price is going way up next offseason.
If Murray struggles, does not fit well in O’Connell’s offense or gets injured again, which he has multiple times to meaningful degrees across his seven-year career, then Minnesota probably won’t try to bring him back.
Should Murray play well, the team puts itself in a difficult position as to whether it should pay longterm, high-end money to an undersized signal-caller with a meaningful injury history who will, by that point, be on the wrong side of 30. The Vikings made the wrong call on Sam Darnold after the 2025 campaign, which puts all the more pressure on the looming Murray decision.
Vikings Already Bet on JJ McCarthy as Starting QB, and Lost
GettyMinnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy.
The other option is going to be JJ McCarthy, assuming he has not tried to publicly force his way out of town by then. Minnesota selected McCarthy No. 10 overall in 2024, and he has missed 24 of 34 possible regular-season games since with a variety of injuries.
McCarthy’s struggles led to a change in management at the top of the Vikings front office this offseason, and Murray’s arrival renders McCarthy most likely the backup QB heading into just his third NFL season.
Even if something goes awry with Murray and/or the team ends up moving on from him next offseason, betting on McCarthy as the longterm future in Minnesota is an exceedingly precarious wager for the franchise to make at this point.
Vikings Probably Won’t Be in Position to Draft QB as Good as Brendan Sorsby Next April
GettyQuarterback Brendan Sorsby.
And so, after kicking the can down the road on Kirk Cousins before ultimately cutting bait, dealing with a slew of second- and third-stringer talents as makeshift starters after that, drafting McCarthy to so far disastrous results and adding Murray in a context that will make it hard to keep him in 2027 regardless of how he plays, O’Connell and the Vikings find themselves in the same place they always have since the head coach came aboard four years ago: with major questions and no longterm solutions at QB.
That brings the conversation back around to Sorsby, a dual-threat player who amassed 7,200 passing yards over his final three seasons in college and who McShay believes has arguably the most physical talent of any rookie QB available in next year’s draft, save for perhaps Sellers.
If the Vikings wait for next spring to make a move, there is a reasonable chance they miss out on a shot at a top-five QB prospect. Because while Murray has had his struggles in recent years, he should be able to lead Minnesota to at least a competitive campaign in 2026 given his abilities, plus the talent around him at the skill positions and on defense.
The same is true for McCarthy, who played better down the stretch last year (albeit against mostly terrible defenses) and finished the year with a 6-4 record. Whether McCarthy or Murray starts the bulk of the team’s contests in 2026, the Vikings aren’t likely to finish poorly enough to win a top-10 pick. And moving up the draft board significantly in such a lauded class is likely to cost an enormous amount capital.
Bidding 1st-Round Pick on Brendan Sorsby Risk Worth Taking for Kevin O’Connell, Vikings
GettyQuarterback Brendan Sorsby.
A safer decision for Minnesota, then, is to put up what should be a middling first-round pick at worst, and what could be a late-round first if things go exceedingly well, for a player in Sorsby who has high-end first-round value (at least contextually).
He’s more talented than anyone else the Vikings are likely to get next April, and he offers an alternative to both Murray and McCarthy in 2027 and beyond.
It is, of course, possible (or even likely) that such a decision by Minnesota will alienate the top two QBs already on the roster. But in the case of McCarthy, the Vikings already alienated him when they brought in Murray, so why not double-down?
And in the case of Murray, he’s going to test the open market next spring regardless, especially if things go swimmingly in Minnesota this season. Murray has nothing but massive incentive to play well for the Vikings in 2026, and no ancillary moves the team makes at the QB position will change that.
The Vikings took a big swing, and whiffed, when they let Darnold walk. They took a huge cut when they replaced Darnold with McCarthy after picking him 10th overall, and so far that looks like a three-pitch strikeout.
Murray might end up a walk-off double who saunters to some other team a year from now, and Minnesota is a long shot to hit a home run at QB in the first round of next year’s draft given where the team is likely to select.
That leaves pinch-hitting a first-rounder with unknown value for Sorsby this July as the best chance for O’Connell and company to finally put some runs on the board at QB and truly build at the position for the longterm future.
Vikings Should Offer 1st-Round Pick for JJ McCarthy, Kyler Murray Successor