JJ McCarthy is Traded - 8/29/26
After a tumultuous few weeks and whirlwind speculation, the dust has finally settled. JJ McCarthy is the newest member of the New York Giants.
The story of how the former University of Michigan National Champion ended up in NY starts draft night, 2024. On April 24th, the Vikings committed to turning the page on a new era of football. Trading up to draft McCarthy with the tenth overall pick, Minnesota tied themselves to the young signal caller with hopes of developing their own true franchise quarterback. After six years of Kirk Cousins and mediocrity (two years under the new regime), Kwesi Adofah Mensah and Kevin O’Connell were finally poised to take the Vikings out of purgatory. The last six seasons (the last two for KOC and Kwesi) had seen the Vikings mired in a cycle of performing just good enough to offer hope for the future or not quite bad enough to force their hand to pull the plug and restart everything. With the young Michigan star, the Vikings were committing to results, and betting on KOC’s ability to mold young McCarthy into the Man in Minnesota. To those who support the Purple Cause, this looked like a good bet. Minnesota employed a duo featuring the best wide receiver in the world in Justin Jefferson and his protege Jordan Addison, who had just come off a rookie campaign with over 900 yards and ten touchdowns. With a top ten tight end in TJ Hockenson in the pass-catching mix and a stellar Aaron Jones for ground support, McCarthy was being set up for success. With all of these weapons in place, the most important factor in McCarthy’s development, and the greatest source of optimism, was that he would be coached and mentored by Kevin O’Connel - the quarterback-whisperer.
With McCarthy’s future outlook in mind, the front office brought in former third-overall pick, and then journey-man, Sam Darnold on a one-year deal. Everything was set up for JJ to sit and learn for a year behind a veteran, soak up everything in practice, and become the Vikings’ next franchise quarterback. Following a training camp where he showed a lot of promise, hype around the Illinois kid was buzzing. McCarthy came into his first preseason game against the Raiders, with the other JJ on the call, and threw two great deep balls for touchdowns (Trishton Jackson & Trent Sherfield Sr.). With a preseason debut like that it was hard to envision Sam Darnold in the starting spot for long. It looked like Minnesota finally had their guy. Four days later the news hit. McCarthy would be out for the season, sidelined with a torn meniscus.
This injury would be the first twist in McCarthy’s winding road to New York. Coming off a ‘24 campaign where Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 record, the teams’ best in 24 years, Minnesota was ready for its franchise QB. They had achieved regular season success. But it all fell apart in the post season.Darnold wasn’t up to the task in Minnesota. A talented young QB was the final piece to the puzzle.
When JJ McCarthy returned home to face the Bears on Monday Night Football in week one of the '25 season, there were a lot of questions. How would l being sidelined for a season have affected his growth? What were the implications of his shaky training camp? Was he really “pro-ready”? These questions lingered for the first three quarters of the week one game. The fourth quarter came and the world saw what number nine could do. The Bears came out to a 17-6 lead with McCarthy struggling, throwing a 76-yard pick-6 to former Vikings corner Nashon Wright. Then McCarthy had a revelation: he remembered that he’s actually really very good at football. The National Champion led the Vikings to 21 unanswered points. McCarthy threw for two touchdowns and late in the fourth rushed for a third.That Monday night, the world saw JJ’s potential. The next day he was named NFC offensive player of the week. This was, undisputedly, the high point of the JJ McCarthy experience in Minnesota
But then the high of the Bears game came crashing down…violently. The following Sunday, McCarthy’s two interceptions had the Vikings lose 22-6 to the terrible Falcons. This was made worse by the news that McCarthy had suffered a high ankle sprain and would miss time. When he finally got back into action, the Vikings were 3-4 and facing an away matchup against the reigning North champs. McCarthy delivered another clutch performance, similar to his debut. His third down conversion to Jailen Nailor to bring his team to .500 gave the world another glimpse into his potential and recurring clutch gene. After this three touchdown performance, McCarthy struggled. Over a three game stretch following his success in Detroit, Kevin O’Connell tried to get McCarthy out of his own head. The turnovers and incompletions, KOC knew, would be cut down if JJ could “just go play”. The 2024 Coach of the Year was right. McCarthy’s next four games he ‘just played’. He led the Vikings to victories in all four of these games and to a winning 9-8 record.
Entering the offseason, questions surrounding the QB room were endless. It did, however, feel clear that the book had not yet been written on JJ McCarthy. At times the turnovers were too much. The mental errors felt inexcusable. At other points, there were moments that made you forget when the Big Dog in McCarthy shined through. Everyone forgets that McCarthy was, in effect, a rookie in ‘25. The bottom line was this. In his first year playing in the NFL, McCarthy started ten games and won six of them. All that a ten game sample size reveals is a player’s potential. His ceiling and his floor. To cut ties with a player that showed McCarthy’s ceiling is inexcusable and makes no sense. How can you possibly be informed enough to write a player with his talent off after just ten games? You can’t.
GM Nolan Teasley and the other suits effectively curbed the latitude of the organization by trading McCarty for a 5th round pick to the New York Giants. Removing a player with massive potential upside forced the Vikings to commit to starting the development process over again and/or commit to the aging and dwarvish Kyler Murray. Rather than committing to results, the Vikings remain ambiguous.
Committing to McCarthy would have put the Vikings at a metaphorical fork in the road. Along one path, McCarthy develops into the franchise QB that many believed he could be. On the other path, he’s a bust like everyone else believed and the team moves on. Instead of making a decision and living with the results, they took a third route; a long and winding road that spits out at that same fork.
Unless Murray can somehow bring a championship to the Purple and Gold, all eyes will be on McCarthy in New York, hoping that they made the right choice.