J.J. McCarthy remains the Vikings’ official backup quarterback.
Kevin O’Connell reiterated that status last week, after Kyler Murray won Minnesota’s starting job. McCarthy has taken the second-team reps throughout training camp, while Carson Wentz has worked behind him.
But O’Connell’s comments after Saturday’s 13-3 preseason loss to Baltimore left the door open.
Asked whether the performances changed how he viewed the quarterback depth chart, O’Connell did not simply reaffirm McCarthy as QB2 and move on. He said the Vikings want to “keep giving those guys opportunities” and will make a plan to get the quarterbacks enough work “to be able to see where they’re all at.”
That does not amount to a demotion, but it does sound like a competition that has not been fully settled.
And the reason is not that Wentz has suddenly turned back the clock all the way to 2017. It is that McCarthy has repeated too many of the problems that derailed his 2025 season as Minnesota’s starter.
The same concerns keep resurfacing
McCarthy’s first quarter against Baltimore contained the entire case for why the Vikings remain invested in him.
With pressure closing in, he escaped a rusher, stepped up in the pocket and gave Tai Felton a chance on a 50-yard downfield completion. It was an athletic, high-level play, one that showed McCarthy’s arm strength, movement ability and willingness to attack.
The next moments showed why the Vikings are still waiting for the talent to become more dependable quarterback play.
McCarthy checked down to Demond Claiborne for 7 yards, setting up second-and-goal from the 3. He then fired one of his infamous hard-to-catch lasers to Felton in the end zone. On fourth down from the 1, he missed an open Myles Price.
The Vikings failed to put points on the board.
Felton said his standard is to catch any ball that reaches his hands, so the first red-zone throw was not necessarily a pure quarterback error. The Price miss was different. The receiver was open. The throw was high. And the result was another stalled drive.
McCarthy finished 5 of 10 for 81 yards. He had other positives, including a 19-yard completion to Jeshaun Jones that was wiped out by a holding penalty. He played behind a reserve offensive line, faced pressure against a stronger Ravens defensive front and saw two false starts put the offense behind schedule.
Those factors matter, though they do not erase the larger pattern.
The late decisions, slow reads and inaccurate throws, especially on plays that should be relatively straightforward, were frequent issues during McCarthy’s 2025 season. They have appeared again in the preseason. He has led seven drives across two games, and Minnesota has not scored a point with him at quarterback.
That is not all on McCarthy. It is enough to prevent the Vikings from treating the evaluation as complete.
McCarthy’s response was honest, but the answer has to come on the field
McCarthy did not hide from the two red-zone misses after the game.
“Those are just throws I got to make,” he said.
Asked whether he felt sped up, he said he did not. He said his mechanics feel “really good,” including when live pressure is involved. His view was that the missed throws created useful experience, something to log and correct the next time.
That is a reasonable response from a 23-year-old quarterback. McCarthy understands the standard. He is not blaming Price, Felton, the play call or the offensive line.
But the question is no longer whether he knows the throws must be made. The question is whether he can make them often enough for the Vikings to trust him as the guy who’s the famous “one play away”.
McCarthy has always had enough ability to produce an occasional remarkable play. The 50-yarder to Felton was the latest example. Running an NFL offense, however, is about making the routine look routine. It is about taking the easy completion, creating a clean drive and not forcing a defense or special teams unit to spend the entire afternoon chasing his mistakes.
That has not happened often enough.
The injury concern also remains part of the picture. O’Connell said he would have liked to give McCarthy another series against Baltimore, but the quarterback got “a little banged up” after a collection of hits. McCarthy said he is healthy and does not expect the issue to keep him out.
There is no reason to turn a preseason knock into a major injury story. It’s football after all, and players suffer minor and major injuries all the time. Still, it was another reminder of an uncomfortable reality. McCarthy’s 2025 season was interrupted by various injuries, following a missed 2024 season, and the Vikings need their backup quarterback to be both capable and available.
Wentz has given O’Connell an alternative
Wentz has not been flawless, and the Vikings should not pretend otherwise.
Against the Giants, he completed 9 of 14 passes for 81 yards and a touchdown. Against Baltimore, he went 9 of 11 for 92 yards, but took two sacks and could not turn his second-quarter work into a touchdown. His biggest completion Saturday, a 35-yarder to Jeshaun Jones, required an excellent catch from the receiver after some initial bobble and contact.
There have been mistakes, missed opportunities and the usual preseason limitations. Wentz has played almost exclusively with reserves, even deeper ones than his competitor.
But he has still looked steadier.
Across two games, Wentz is 18 of 25 for 173 yards and a touchdown. More importantly, he has generally taken the completion that is there, moved the offense forward and avoided the kind of obvious misses that have defined McCarthy’s preseason drives.
That is a modest bar. It should be.
The Vikings do not need their backup quarterback to look like a Pro Bowler in August. They need him to enter a game, manage the operation, recognize the routine answer and keep a talented roster from losing its footing if Murray gets hurt.
McCarthy’s inconsistency has lowered the standard Wentz must clear. Wentz does not have to be spectacular to create a real question. He only has to look more dependable than the quarterback listed ahead of him.
O’Connell offered another telling detail after Saturday’s game. The Vikings planned to give Wentz work with a group they believed could move the football.
That is not evidence of favoritism. It is evidence that the coaching staff understands what it is evaluating. Wentz has started 101 NFL games and has experienced nearly every version of an NFL quarterback room. The Vikings know the stability he can provide.
McCarthy remains the player with more developmental upside. The Vikings do not yet know whether that upside is ready to translate into dependable relief work.
Why O’Connell is still evaluating
It would be easy for O’Connell to shut down the discussion. McCarthy is the younger quarterback, a former top-10 pick and the player Minnesota needs to keep developing. The team could simply maintain the listed depth chart and dismiss Wentz’s preseason production as the expected work of a veteran against reserve defenses.
Instead, O’Connell publicly said he wants more opportunities for everyone in the room.
That does not have to mean McCarthy has lost the job. It means the Vikings are taking the backup position seriously. In both 2023 and 2025, the Vikings went at least three QBs deep. That’s half of O’Connell’s four-year tenure.
The starter has already been named. There is no reason to manufacture another quarterback controversy. But there is a legitimate football decision underneath it.
The Vikings’ roster is built to compete now. If Murray misses time, the season cannot simply pause while McCarthy works through the same accuracy and processing issues that followed him from 2025 into this summer. O’Connell has to decide whether the best answer is to keep investing reps in McCarthy, trust Wentz’s experience, or even skim the market.
McCarthy remains QB2 today.
O’Connell’s comments suggest the Vikings are not prepared to assume he will remain there simply because the depth chart says so.
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