EAGAN, Minn. — The Vikings have bid farewell to three quarterbacks who spent time on their roster last season, including one — veteran Sam Darnold — who threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns. They passed on an opportunity to sign future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, who had expressed interest in playing for them in 2025.
Why? They are ready to turn over the position to J.J. McCarthy, the No. 10 pick of the 2024 draft, who has recovered from a torn meniscus in his right knee. McCarthy, speaking Tuesday to local reporters for the first time since last fall, appears as confident in himself as the team is in him.
“I know I’m ready to start,” McCarthy said, “because of all the work I’ve put in and just the confidence in my skills and abilities and just being able to do my job. And to simplify things to the best of my ability every single day. And just to take it one day at a time, one play at a time. And I have a tremendous coaching staff, a tremendous group of guys around me that I can lean on and they can lean on me.”
The Vikings cleared McCarthy this spring for full participation in their offseason program, which began last week. He said Tuesday that he has regained all of the roughly 25 to 30 pounds he lost during his recovery process and is now 215 pounds after dropping as low as the “high 180s” over the winter.
Some fans and observers were alarmed by broadcast images of his weight loss as he stood on the sidelines during Vikings games late last season. But on Tuesday, McCarthy confirmed ESPN reporting that it was the result of inaction during the initial stages of recovery. Once he began accelerating his activity in November, moreover, he suffered swelling that required a second surgery, a PRP shot to address inflammation and additional down time.
“[The weight loss] was just the combination of not moving at all, not working out,” he said. “I’m somebody that needs to work out in order to put on weight. … It’s amazing how fast it kind of peaks and valleys, but I’m feeling like I’m in a really comfortable spot and [will] just kind of maintain it from here.”
McCarthy made steady progress as a rookie during his short stint in training camp last summer before suffering the injury during the team’s preseason opener. At the time, Darnold was the Vikings’ likeliest Week 1 starter, but a path remained for McCarthy to win the starting job if he had had a chance to continue making progress.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has stopped short of naming McCarthy his starter, although neither of the other three quarterbacks on the roster — newly acquired Sam Howell, holdover Brett Rypien and rookie Max Brosmer — are expected to make a serious challenge for the job. Eventually naming McCarthy the starter is “the outcome we want” and “the outcome we’re headed towards,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has said, and McCarthy characterized it Tuesday as a “competition with myself.”
“I’ve got to win [the job] with myself every single day,” he said. “It’s a competition with myself and obviously it’s just putting your best body of work, my best body of work, out there. But it comes with looking myself in the mirror every night and [saying], ‘Did I get better?’ And if I keep this non-comparative aspect to it, and just really focus on being the best version of myself, that’s really where I’m aiming and that’s where I’m trying to go.”
