The Minnesota Vikings have consistently indicated that they intend to keep quarterback JJ McCarthy on the roster, but recent developments potentially point to the opposite outcome, as do rumblings from other front office executives around the NFL.
Jason LaCanfora of Casino.org reported on Tuesday, September 1 that Minnesota could move McCarthy ahead of Week 1.
“Executives around the NFL have informed me for weeks that former first-round pick JJ McCarthy is unlikely to remain with the Vikings long-term,” LaCanfora wrote. “Despite McCarthy’s current trade value being considered low as he deals with an ankle injury, a move away from Minnesota could still come ahead of Week 1.”
Minnesota will also be looking for a sweetener in any trade involving a team that might actually start McCarthy at some point this season.
“The Vikings are also expected to seek a conditional element in any deal that would increase their compensation, should McCarthy go on to play for his new team,” LaCanfora added.
JJ McCarthy Took Team by Surprise When He Sidelined Himself Ahead of Preseason Finale
McCarthy removed himself from active status ahead of the team’s preseason finale, which caught head coach Kevin O’Connell and others within the organization off guard and birthed even more intense trade speculation from team insiders.
“It was clear from the people I talked to that it was him not being comfortable playing in the game,” Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune reported Monday. “It was not the team saying, ‘No, we don’t think you’re ready to go,’ it was him saying, ‘I’m not comfortable doing it.’ That could be with any number of motivations. We don’t have any way to say definitively what would have led to that decision.”
Beyond McCarthy’s unexpected call to remove himself from action, Minnesota’s decision to carry four QBs through cutdown day also raised eyebrows regarding the team’s future plans for McCarthy.
“The fact that it went the way it went just makes me think, especially given the fact there’s still four QBs on this roster, I don’t know that we’ve heard the last on this QB depth chart,” Goessling said. “I’d be very surprised if it looked this way by Week 1.”
Vikings Removed Some Heat From QB Room by Waiving Max Brosmer
The Vikings addressed some of those questions by waiving second-year QB Max Brosmer on Monday.
However, McCarthy remains sidelined by an injury the veracity of which some team insiders are questioning openly.
“I’m not buying [the injury],” Darren Wolfson of KSTP said recently. “It didn’t add up to me.”
Conspiracy theories are also beginning to circulate that McCarthy’s injury is being overblown as a way for the QB and team to avoid talking about the fact that he’s likely to start the season as QB3, if he’s on the roster at all, and might be third-string even if he was 100 percent healthy.
“I don’t wanna be the conspiracy person,” Matthew Coller of Purple Insider said on Tuesday. “It seems like they just don’t wanna name him the QB3, so it would be more convenient to say that he’s hurt.”
Vikings QB JJ McCarthy’s Trade Status Gets Major Update