Carson Wentz will serve as the Vikings’ starting quarterback again in Week 7, as presumptive QB1 J.J. McCarthy is still dealing with a high ankle sprain that has kept him on the sidelines since Week 3. Head coach Kevin O’Connell previously stopped short of confirming McCarthy would be back in the starting lineup when he is fully healthy, and Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reiterates O’Connell will continue his wait-and-see approach (video link).
While making clear that McCarthy is not yet recovered from the ankle injury – meaning the Vikes are not overstating the ailment to allow the second-year passer to save face – Rapoport says O’Connell will not make a true Wentz-or-McCarthy decision until McCarthy is 100%. And it is certainly possible that Wentz forces O’Connell’s hand.
McCarthy has underwhelmed in seven of the eight quarters he has played in 2025. That is perhaps not surprising given that the 2024 first-rounder missed his entire rookie campaign because of a knee injury and then practiced just one time after Minnesota’s Week 1 victory this year due to the birth of his son (h/t Rapoport). Considering the Vikings’ investment in him and obvious faith in his abilities – despite his lost rookie season, the team allowed both Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones to depart in free agency – they obviously want to give him every opportunity to succeed.
On the other hand, Minnesota is 3-2 and has postseason aspirations after narrowly missing out on the NFC’s No. 1 seed last year. Wentz, a 10-year veteran with 97 starts to his name, has played reasonably well in relief of his younger counterpart, guiding the club to a 2-1 record during his three games at the helm (he came up just short of a comeback victory in the one loss and posted quarterback ratings of 102.1 and 129.8 in the two wins).
Per Rapoport, McCarthy’s injury is also likely to force him out of the team’s Week 8 game with the Chargers, a Thursday night affair that will take place shortly after Sunday’s Week 7 matchup against the Eagles. Both of those will be difficult games, and if Wentz struggles, O’Connell should have no trouble reinserting McCarthy.
But if Wentz leads the Vikings to wins and runs his personal record to 4-1 this season, Rapoport thinks O’Connell will keep him atop the depth chart, irrespective of McCarthy’s health.
Let’s see how the kid deals with adversity. Maybe he’ll grow from this.
It’s been a tough road professionally for McCarthy, but by all accounts, his mental fortitude is his main strength. Hopefully for him, he’ll be able to bounce back.
Outside of that, I’d say that the negative is how much time he has lost. McCarthy was an…imperfect prospect to say the least coming out of the draft. I really didn’t see him being taken so highly, honestly, and thought that he could have really benefitted from more experience. I’d like to have seen him in a higher volume passing offense, personally, to see how he did in those scenarios. A lot of people probably disagreed with me, but I thought that the Rodgers-Minnesota connection was the best quarterback fit of the offseason, but I get why the Vikings wanted to see McCarthy. Unfortunately, these injuries have robbed him of much needed development time.
Still, it’s too early to cast him off yet. I think that it’d be hard to keep him on the bench if he’s healthy for Wentz on his return. The Vikings already committed to giving him the reigns when they skipped signing Rodgers or another vet this past offseason, and having him sit healthy on the bench makes it harder to see him coming back as a franchise starter next year. It’s certainly still possible, completely, it just makes it harder than, say, only benching McCarthy if he returns and plays poorly. The latter scenario at least gives him a chance to retake his job and starter status that the Vikes wanted him to seize to begin with.
You would think that at some point NFL GMs would understand that drafting a QB when you can’t provide any pass protection is a losing strategy…but every year some kid gets thrown to the wolves.
Yes, definitely, let’s use “underwhelmed in seven of the eight quarters he has played” as a measuring stick for evaluating a rookie QB’s performance. How long can you expect the Vikings to stick with a guy who hasn’t impressed in barely any of the 120 minutes of game time he’s been fielded!!!???!!
Mahomes wouldn’t have missed 1 game let alone 4 with a sprained ankle. Let’s face it, McConnell benched McCarthy and wants to work with him in practice before inserting him back into the lineup.