Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy‘s birthday wasn’t all candles and cake.
The 23-year-old quarterback has acknowledged that he must mature in dog years if he hopes to realize his potential as the team’s franchise QB.
It was a tough season for McCarthy, who dealt with turnover issues and offensive miscues early in the season before becoming a viral image of bad quarterbacking.
If there was any doubt, he’s surely seen the memes now.
On January 20, McCarthy shared an Instagram carousel of photos for his birthday. Images commemorating the birth of his son, Rome, and many of the season’s biggest moments were shared.
But buried beneath the warm and fuzzy feelings of those images was a message that served as a requiem for the criticism he’s faced.
“Keep every stone they throw at you,” the message reads. “You got castles to build.”
Entering a pivotal third season for McCarthy, still the league’s youngest quarterback before the 2026 NFL Draft, he will look to build on his first season as a starter after throwing for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 10 starts.
While the back of the trading card stats could look better, McCarthy did show a will to win several times this season. He went 6-4 in his starts, which included a historic comeback victory over the Chicago Bears in the season opener on Monday Night Football and a primetime victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 15.
Will JJ McCarthy Be the Vikings’ Week 1 Starter in 2026?
After the Vikings offense took a considerable step back last season, head coach Kevin O’Connell stressed the importance of adding more competition to the quarterback room in his end-of-season news conference.
“I think there has to be,” O’Connell said. “That’s what’s going to make everybody better in that room. It’s going to be what makes our entire offense thrive through that competition. That should be how our entire organization looks at their individual roles when we compete against each other in the different aspects of the offseason. I ultimately think that’s what will [prepare] not only the starter but the next guy and the next guy, and we’ve learned we’ve got to get a lot of guys ready to play. And we’ve got to do it with a responsibility of being the best version of our offense.”
O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah signaled a philosophical pivot from last offseason, when they touted that McCarthy was their guy going into 2025.
Now, there seems to be an onus on winning, which could see McCarthy face serious competition for the starting job.
“I want the Vikings to achieve our goals, and I think one of those goals is to make playoff runs,” Adofo-Mensah said. “The way we’ve set this team up, we’ve built this core to really, like we’ve always talked about, give ourselves multiple shots at it because you never know when there’s going to be a year where the field feels a little bit wide open and you can make that run. And so that’s what we’re really focused on, talking about whether it’s this year or next year isn’t really my immediate reflection. It’s my job to really bring that deep competitive room that we’ve talked about to the Vikings.”
Realistic Vikings QB Options to Pair With McCarthy
The quarterback rumor mill is in full swing with roughly a third of the league seeing changes at head coach.
That’s led to several big-name quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow emerging as potential trade candidates. Those would be blockbuster deals that would rattle the NFL and are a rarity.
ESPN’s Kevin Seifert outlined some more realistic options that would be available in free agency and not require draft capital to acquire.
“Green Bay Packers backup Malik Willis, who has started six games in four seasons, is a pending free agent but is likely to have multiple suitors. The Atlanta Falcons could release former Vikings starter Kirk Cousins, 37, in mid-March. Aaron Rodgers, 42, and Joe Flacco, 41, will be free agents. So will Jimmy Garoppolo, who has started seven games in the past three seasons, and Russell Wilson, who is 37 and ranks No. 32 in NFL QBR since the start of the 2021 season,” Seifert wrote.
Vikings’ JJ McCarthy Makes Feelings Clear on QB Controversy in Birthday Post