The hits won’t seem to stop coming for Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy who dropped another rung on the depth chart on the day the NFL regular season officially began.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell announced on Wednesday, September 9 that Carson Wentz will begin the year as the backup behind starter Kyler Murray when the Vikings host the Green Bay Packers in Minneapolis this weekend.
“Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell announced Carson Wentz will be the No. 2 backup QB on Sunday vs. the Packers and JJ McCarthy will be QB3,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on X.
So within the span of a month McCarthy has lost both the starting job to Murray, which happened before the offense took a single snap in a preseason game, and has now forfeited the QB2 spot to Wentz.
But sadly, it may not end there for the 23-year-old signal-caller.
“I’ll be curious too, like, who is the scout team QB?” Alec Lewis of The Athletic posited after the news about Wentz and McCarthy broke. “Will that be JJ McCarthy? Would the Vikings trust Max Brosmer, you know, as a practice squad player in that spot?”
Max Brosmer Could End Up Vikings’ Scout Team QB Over JJ McCarthy
If McCarthy’ ankle injury is still an issue, perhaps the Vikings’ coaching staff will give Brosmer the nod as scout team QB by default.
Or, if McCarthy and his camp are indignant and insulted enough by his demotion to third-string, perhaps they will demand that he doesn’t function in that capacity. That doesn’t sound like the type of teammate McCarthy has been over his two years with the organization, so it doesn’t read as likely from the outside looking in.
However, it would not be an unreasonable position for McCarthy to push for a trade to another franchise at this point. And if that proves to be the case, he may not want to risk injuring himself in practice before getting a chance to compete somewhere else in the NFL for a starting job, or at least to earn a backup role.
Kevin O’Connell Says JJ McCarthy Can Earn Back QB2 Role
If McCarthy is not pushing for a trade and/or if the Vikings are not inclined to entertain that idea at this point in the year/his career, then McCarthy’s only way back is to fight up the depth chart.
O’Connell said on Wednesday that McCarthy has the ability to do so beginning now.
“Carson will be the backup on Sunday, and JJ will obviously be the third guy. And really, I’m looking at that right now as a week-to-week thing,” O’Connell said. “JJ is still going to get a bunch of great work. I’m just really excited to continue to get the chance to work with him. We want to make it week-to-week so when we feel like when we need to declare something different, we can and we will.”
Vikings’ JJ McCarthy May Face More Embarrassment After QB3 Demotion