On March 12, the Minnesota Vikings announced that they have come to terms on a one-year contract with Kyler Murray. Moreover, Minnesota will pay $1.3 million of Murray’s $36.8 million salary for 2026, per ESPN.
The Vikings now have their QB, with former first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, to compete in training camp and the preseason to determine who will win the starting job for the 2026 season.
While the Vikings will let the players determine who wins the job in practice and out on the field, CBS Sports NFL analyst Bryant McFadden already sees Murray being the starter over McCarthy.
“If it’s a quarterback competition, I visualize Kyler Murray winning that competition,” McFadden said on the March 12 edition of CBS Sports HQ. “I think this would be the same situation that we saw a year ago with the Indianapolis Colts when they brought in Daniel Jones.
“They made it known that it would be a quarterback competition between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson. However it played out, at the end of the day, Daniel Jones won that job. So if that’s the case for Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy, I visualize Kyler Murray winning that job.”
Vikings Should Consider Handing Kyler Murray Starting Job
Moreover, if Minnesota decides to give Murray the job rather than have him earn the starting role in a competition, McFadden believes it’s okay to make the former No. 1 overall pick the starter because he’s a better player than McCarthy.
“If [the Vikings are] just giving him the keys to the car right now, I’m okay with that as well, because I look at Kyler Murray’s entire professional career, outside of what we saw last year in the injury-plagued year,” McFadden added.
“He’s a more talented quarterback than J.J. McCarthy, and that’s no knock on J.J. McCarthy, but he hasn’t really gotten a chance to get his feet wet because of injuries.
“Then when he’s been in the lineup, he’s been inconsistent. But Kyler Murray has shown the ability to be very, very productive in the National Football League. He’s shown the ability to be able to put teams in positions to win ball games.”
Kevin O’Connell Could Get the Most Out of Kyler Murray
Furthermore, McFadden is excited to see what Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell can do with Murray and potentially tap into the potential that he flashed with the Arizona Cardinals. O’Connell has brought out the best in players like Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold during his head coaching career with the Vikings and could do the same with Murray.
“So if you put him with a guy like Kevin O’Connell, who has shown great coaching ability, got the best out of Kirk Cousins, got the best out of Sam Darnold, and then a small sample size,” McFadden said.
“You remember when Joshua Dobbs was in a Minnesota Vikings uniform and how we just saw flashes of really, really good play from Joshua Dobbs?
“Well, that was under Kevin O’Connell, right? So when you look at those situations and how Kevin O’Connell was able to get the best out of those experienced quarterbacks, not young quarterbacks but experienced quarterbacks, I can see the same storyline happening for Kyler Murray.”
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