Daily Norseman
Well, it looks like this offseason will be another fantastic debate about the QB position. It has already started with folks settling into their respective camps and very very few willing to change their position (er., mind). I’m not sure what the team is actually going to do but if the people in charge want to keep their jobs then they had better have a viable alternative to JJ McCarthy. It will be very tough sell to the owners and fans if they try to run it back with JJ, Wentz, and Brosmer. That is the definition of insanity although each player could and should be better with another year in the KOC offense.
I am onboard for any move or no moves at all. It doesn’t really matter to me because this season has been a disappointment. Any time the team misses the playoffs is a disappointment. Not really looking forward to watching any playoff games to be honest. I will watch the Bears, Steelers, and Seahawks this weekend.
Injured J.J. McCarthy made tough but ‘right’ call to exit game
McCarthy had been attempting to play with a hairline fracture in the hand, one of three significant injuries that has cost him playing time this season and the fourth since the Vikings made him the No. 10 pick in the 2024 draft. Sunday, he completed 14 of 23 passes for 188 yards before walking to the sideline after the first play of the second half and summoning backup Max Brosmer, who played the rest of the game.
McCarthy called it “one of the hardest choices I’ve had to make in my life so far,” but said he was heeding a lesson he learned after ignoring pain in that hand in Week 16 against the New York Giants. On that day, McCarthy didn’t inform the Vikings until after he dropped the ball on an aborted screen pass. In subsequent conversations, coach Kevin O’Connell implored McCarthy to be more forthcoming in real time.
“I was happy I made the right decision,” McCarthy said. “I learned from something from the prior week, feeling the momentum of the game, how well the defense is playing. When it gets to a point where you feel like your body is going to say, ‘No, you can’t do that. You’ve got to put your ego aside and understand you’ve got to do what’s best for the team.’ And it’s a similar situation that came up today, and it killed me to pull myself out. Never done that before, but I got to do what’s best for my team.”
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NFL players rarely take themselves out of games, and McCarthy said he had to make a “grown-man decision.”
He added: “I got one person on my shoulder saying, ‘Go in there, you got this, it’ll be fine.’ And then another person [on the other shoulder saying], ‘Hey, maybe this is a test, that you’re being tested to make the right...
