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Former Vikings Stars Speak on Minnesota’s Plan with J.J. McCarthy
The 2025 season was a bit of a roller coaster for the Minnesota Vikings.
While the defense pretty much performed up to expectations throughout the year, there were some major inconsistencies on offense, particularly at the quarterback position.
It didn’t help that J.J. McCarthy was only able to appear in 10 games because of various injuries suffered throughout the year, but it also wasn’t convenient that the Vikings never quite seemed to know what they were going to get from the 22-year-old when he stepped onto the field.
Now, heading into the 2026 offseason, two former Vikings stars are speaking out on Minnesota’s plan with McCarthy in 2025 and what should happen moving forward.
Former Vikings Stars Speak on J.J. McCarthy
On Wednesday, former Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr put out a clip of he and another beloved former Vikings linebacker, Eric Kendricks discussing the McCarthy plan.
Both former Vikings seemed to agree that Minnesota should have kept a veteran starting quarterback around for McCarthy to continue learning from in 2025, particularly Sam Darnold.
“Most people in that building knew that J.J. just wasn’t quite ready yet. I think he needed an older mentor to kind of shadow for another two years,” Barr said.
“Mentorship is crucial,” Kendricks added. “There’s some positions where it pays to have a veteran in front of you, and a little bit of experience goes a long way. I mean, we see the resurgence of Sam Donald’s career.”
Granted, the Vikings did bring in Carson Wentz as their backup quarterback in 2025, but that was only after they lost Darnold to the Seahawks and were shocked to find Daniel Jones was also leaving the franchise to compete for a starting job with the Indianapolis Colts, which he ultimately won.
Wentz would fill in for five games in 2025 while McCarthy was out, but ultimately, his own shoulder injury became so bad that he couldn’t continue to give it a go. He was eventually placed on IR and had season-ending surgery.
Of course, Jones would also end up having his own catastrophic Achilles tear with the Colts, but before that, the QB had Indianapolis looking like one of the best teams in the NFL. In 13 starts, Jones threw for 3101 yards, 19 touchdowns, and eight interceptions while managing to complete a career-high 68% of his passes.
Had the Vikings found a way to keep Jones in the building and given him an opportunity to compete for the starting QB job, things may have gone differently for Minnesota in 2025. Keeping Darnold around almost certainly would have resulted in a few more wins and a second consecutive playoff berth.
So, does that mean the two former Pro Bowlers are giving up on McCarthy? It doesn’t sound like it.
“I think [McCarthy] still has potential. I think he can still be great. He’s a quarterback. He’s a year two, right? Year two, playing full-time,” Barr said.
“We’re not counting him out,” Kendricks said in agreement.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this article.
