As expected, a reunion between Carson Wentz and the Vikings will be taking place. Team and player agreed to terms on Thursday, Tom Pelissero, Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo of NFL Network report. The team has since announced the news. 
It was recently reported a mutual interest existed between Minnesota and the veteran quarterback. Wentz saw time in 2025 filling in for J.J. McCarthy before a shoulder injury required season-ending surgery. McCarthy is still in the fold, but so is free agent signing Kyler Murray.
Murray is widely expected to win out a competition for the starting gig this summer as he looks to rebuild his value working with head coach Kevin O’Connell. McCarthy’s rookie contract runs through 2027, but a path to the QB1 spot may not exist with the Vikings if Murray’s debut campaign goes well. In any event, Wentz’s return will give the team another experienced option as it seeks out improved play under center. Wentz, 33, has totaled 99 starts in his career.
The former second overall pick was linked to the Jets earlier this month. Wentz has a history with Frank Reich, who became New York’s offensive coordinator during this year’s hiring cycle. Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic confirms the Jets had interest in Wentz. He adds, however, Wentz’s preference was to return to the Vikings. Today’s news limits the number of veteran passers still on the market for the Jets if they aim to add another one.
Wentz made a strong Vikings debut in Week 3, but the injury suffered two games later proved to be a major impediment. With McCarthy still sidelined at the time, Wentz made another two starts and struggled with accuracy. Surgery ended his campaign, one during which Minnesota was unable to find a sustainable answer under center. After falling short of a playoff spot at 9-8, increased efficiency on offense will be critical in 2026 for the Vikings. Murray will likely be tasked with helping the unit take a step forward, but it is certainly not a good sign for McCarthy’s prospects of playing time next season that another veteran has been acquired early in the new league year.
The Vikings entered Thursday near the bottom of the league in cap space. This Wentz deal will no doubt be a low-cost investment, and it will presumably be similar in terms to the one-year, $1.42MM pact he played on in 2025.
Man they’re front office cat Mae up their mind who they want and don’t want. Signing Murray and now wentz with a first rd pick also there is a head scratcher. The way they handled Aaron Jones too is just clueless. Jefferson has got to want to run out of there as fast as possible.
I don’t think it’s a mark of indecision to want extra quarterbacks around when all your quarterbacks have had trouble staying healthy. Besides, the last two teams that had Wentz before the Vikings had him attempt fewer than 25 passes. It’s OK if he’s just a guy on the sideline.
Thank goodness. Wentz is fine as a backup, and with Murray’s injury history they needed someone competent.
A JJ trade has to be incoming, no way they keep him around as the third QB unless there’s absolutely no interest.
I totally agree….Cardinals, Steelers feel like the logical landing place…..
McCarthy is taking up less than 2% of their cap so they don’t need to dump him yet. Max Brosmer would be the QB casualty in any event.
It’s not about the cap, it’s about the awkwardness of him going from franchise QB to scout team QB. Locker room dynamics matter. It’s not “giving up” when his “valuable” rookie deal is running out and he’s going to need an extension anyway. Get what you can before he’s gone for nothing.
The Vikings survived the “awkwardness” of a ‘Love Boat’ scandal so I don’t think they are too worried about McCarthy causing a locker room disruption.
What are you talking about? Almost all of those players were gone from the team within a year. Fred Smoot was basically never heard from again despite being a pro bowl caliber corner prior to his arrival.
McCarthy isn’t going to accept being the 3rd QB. He’ll request a trade, and the Vikings aren’t going to fight that hard to keep a bust. The only way he doesn’t get traded is if there’s not a single team willing to take his contract, which seems unlikely.
I’d bet anything he’ll never play another game with the Vikings, as a backup, starter or 3rd stringer.
Lots of question marks surround Murray and Wentz is nothing more than an affordable bandaid so I don’t expect McCarthy to be traded. I think the Vikings finally understand they totally mishandled his development.
That’s fine if you don’t expect it, but it makes no sense to keep McCarthy as the third QB when he’s entering his third season and he’s counting almost $6M against the cap. It also seems unlikely Wentz would commit to coming back if he thought there was a chance he’d be the #3 QB. Sometimes things are just obvious, and I think trading JJ is.
If he sits for all of the 2026 season, he’s going to be entering the final year of his contract with a cap hit near $7.5M in 2027. Even in a best case scenario where he somehow isn’t the worst QB in the league again and develops, the Vikings would have to pay him starting caliber money in 2028, which means he’s going to need to be a top 15 QB to be worthy of that kind of salary.
It’s not a development issue at this point. It’s a talent issue. He’s just not very good, and praying he’s the anomaly and not the usual bust would be a mistake. I don’t think people understand the amount of improvement he would need to make to be a serviceable NFL QB.
Everyone loves to use the Sam Darnold development, but Darnold played for a ton of no-talent teams. McCarthy took over an offense that was built for him to succeed, with stars at basically every position, and he sucked. Wentz clearly outplayed him despite being bad for the last 5 years.
And again, he’s entering his third season, so his best asset (his contract) is about to lose all of it’s value. If they want to develop a young QB behind Kyler and Wentz, they’d be way smarter to draft a mid round QB and spend the next 2-3 seasons developing that player, since it’s a longer timeline and McCarthy has shown nothing at this point.
Rams? sit behind Stafford and learn from Mcvay
3 QB is absolutely part of the game now. Especially moving to 17 games and in the concussion era, the average number of teams to start a single qb all season is low. Allegedly 11 per year, but I haven’t had time to verify it. But the point is, Wentz is still likely the QB3 and doesn’t mean you have to move JJ at all.
No way Wentz signs with the Vikings when he had other options if he’s behind JJ. Just not a logical thought process.
Who says he has other (or better) options? His year in Minnesota followed two years where he basically didn’t play at all, and he just got hurt yet again.
@Oooof The article five feet above says it.
The Jets definitely aren’t a *better* option.
Being a backup for a team is always better than being a third string for anyone else, what are you talking about? Unless his goal is to just never play, but that doesn’t seem like Wentz at all.
I agree, since he’s clearly the Vikings backup and JJ will be gone, Wentz made the obvious choice. But if he thinks JJ is staying put, he doesn’t sign with the Vikings when he had multiple teams interested and at least one clear offer to be the #2.
Sports guy, you’re completely overlooking the fact that KOC is allegedly a QB whisperer. Wentz can position himself as someone who intentionally learned under that and move into coaching for his next phase. Wentz was unrealistic for either of the two open starting spots (Rodgers doesn’t want to participate in OTAs for Pittsburgh and Cousins looks like their backup plan) and Las Vegas (drafting Mendoza). And then throw in the fact that JJ is clearly at a crossroads in Minnesota and Kyler was factually just paid a lot to go away from his previous team. Neither of them are guaranteed solutions and both have injury concerns. I would argue this is very logical for his career from multiple aspects.
If you think Wentz is thinking he’s going to turn being the Vikings #3 QB into being a starter next season, all I can do is laugh.
Wentz has to play to get any interest. If there’s a chance he’s stuck behind Kyler AND JJ, he’ll be out of the league in 2027.
You guys don’t have to read the obvious tea leaves if you don’t want, but Wentz didn’t pass up being the Jets backup to be the Vikings 3rd string QB because the media loves KOC, sorry.
There’s no need to trade him for scraps if they don’t feel like it’s a big distraction to keep him around. He’s all of nine months older than Fernando Mendoza. Why not hold him rather than dumping him for the sake of dumping him?
His contract, that’s why. Age doesn’t matter when you have him for only two more seasons, especially when this season he wouldn’t play at all. So he’s going to be making $6M to never play, on the prayer that he goes from the worst starting QB to a capable one in a year or two?
You trade him because you get value (Sam Howell got a 5th round pick twice last year, JJ would fetch at least that), save cap money (for a team without any) and you can then use the 3rd QB spot to develop a new QB that isn’t entering his third year and about to be a free agent. It’s pretty simple team building.
More than half of his money is in prorated bonus, so that would be dead cap hit if they traded him. And two years remaining is not “about to be a free agent.”
He’s not going to play this year, so yes, as an actual starter in a best case scenario he has one year left. If you want to pay a third string QB $6.5M, that’s fine, but idiotic, especially when he was awful and showed almost nothing.
Is this Kwesi’s burner account? That would make a lot more sense.
Paying more than half that to be a cheap flier for someone else without an ok return is pointless. They’re paying Murray a hair over a million bucks this year. It doesn’t matter much.
Good call. I came in here to say the same thing. Sitting JJ for either one is fine, but both. And in the longer term, if you are deciding on JJ’s 5th year option, you’re going to want to see him play.
Feels like JJ is headed out if a trade happens draft day 🤔
JJ to the Jets.
The Jets feel like they’ll wait on Arch Manning….
Why is everyone convinced Arch will be the top QB in the draft next year? So far it isn’t looking like that. As for the Jets, I’m not surprised Wentz preferred Minnesota as he grew up in North Dakota and would remain a lot closer to home. Also, if he’s available at #16, there’s a good shot the Jets select Ty Simpson.
I don’t think Simpson is going that high and I don’t think the Jets feel pressure to reach like that when they have three first rounders in what should be a better QB class
Interesting QB room
they have zero faith in McCarthy
Yet they have complete faith that throwing a kid to the sharks with no support is a great development strategy…lol.
Have to think this means JJ is gone if he loses the QB1 competition. Maybe even before that.
Nobody should be surprised Wentz re-signed with Minnesota. After the turmoil of his career and the complete lack of loyalty he’s been shown time and time again, he’s probably prioritizing fit and situation over everything else.
Between Murray and Wentz, they should have a healthy quarterback for 17 games, not clear if they will be 17 different games or about 8 games when they are both healthy and 8 games when they are both unable to play.
McCarthy was the choice of the fired GM. No one remaining has any stake in hanging onto him. I guess Kwesi’s analytics fixation didn’t account for injuries. Moneyball has really helped the Browns too /sarc
I’d love to see the Raiders to trade for him, at a reasonable price. I’ll get virtually no agreements with this, but trade Mendoza for a king’s ransom, especially if it includes the 2027 NYJ #1, start JJ, and if/when it doesn’t work out, use our abundance of 2027 picks for a QB.
Have you ever heard of the saying: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”
Maybe apply that when you think of commenting next time?