Friday Mailbag: How will the Vikings handle the QB situation?

The Vikings are very much in the race. What does that mean for the QB decision?

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By Matthew Coller

Happy bye week, everyone. Hopefully you get some time to talk with your families on a Sunday again and take a deep breath after a stressful open to the season.

Let’s dive into your questions…

Eldon….Do you think Ryan Kelly returns this season?

That’s a hard question to answer. Concussions are totally different from any other injury where the timelines are fairly predictable. I’m sure that he doesn’t want to hang ‘em up but I don’t think it’s unreasonable with this significant of a concussion history to suggest that he calls it a career. He’s been an incredible player, gold standard for the center position. Continuing to play and risking any more concussions would be tough to watch.

IceColdNorth… Which of the six 1st round QBs from the 2024 NFL Draft will be the first to play for a team other than the team that drafted him?

It might end up like the 2020 draft where the answer is nobody. We can already declare that Jayden Daniels is going nowhere. Drake Maye is on the rise. Bo Nix has won enough to convince the Broncos to ride it out. I think Caleb Williams has already done enough to have the Bears stick with him for quite a while in the same way that Jacksonville rides it out with Trevor Lawrence even if there are serious flaws. If the answer isn’t JJ McCarthy, then it might be Michael Penix. He’s only played a handful of games, so we don’t know much about him overall, but if he turns out to be too erratic, then everyone will get fired there and the next regime will do something else.

Matt D… Now that KOC has called a play with a slant route in it, what can he do next to expand his playbook?

I’m giving KOC as much credit as anyone for the adjusted gameplan to get the ball out of Wentz’s hands ASAP, especially against a great Browns team, but let’s not act like he had the wrong idea by “hunting explosives” in the past. The percentage chance to produce points when a team gets a 20+ yard play on a drive skyrocket and he had a ton of success pushing the ball downfield to Jefferson and Addison in the past.

How about this for a stat: In 2023, when Kirk Cousins held onto the ball for more than 2.5 seconds, he had a 109.9 QB rating — the best in the NFL.

Last year when Sam Darnold held the ball more than 2.5 seconds, he had a 97.4 QB rating (8th best) and had 29 big-time throws per PFF (2nd best). Darnold also led the NFL in yards gained via 20+ yard throws and had the sixth best QB rating on those downfield passes.

They clearly needed an adjustment based on the circumstances. In the long run, JJ McCarthy is going to have to be able to hit those downfield throws because they work.

It probably just has to be more balanced considering that defenses have taken back the power with aggressive blitzes and disguised coverages. And, even as they were succeeding with the deep stuff, there were too many times where Justin Jefferson wouldn’t be involved. I thought that the underneath throws to him and Addison were excellent.

So it’s not as simple as just THROW SHORT KOC!

Brad L… At what point is it fair to start judging McCarthy? Some point this season (say after 9 starts)? A couple seasons? At what point do we start getting a handle on his ability to navigate the NFL?

Well, Sam Darnold started his career 17-32 with a 76.9 QB rating. Since 2022, he’s 21-8 with a 101.9 rating with 53 touchdowns and 19 INTs and people somehow still say he is bad.

Unless it’s Allen, Jackson, Mahomes, when do we ever really know?

Bo Nix got behind in the first half of the Eagles game and I saw people saying he sucks. CJ Stroud had a rough year and slow start to this season and I’ve seen people say he sucks. Last year when Justin Herbert lost in the playoffs, I saw people say he sucks. Jalen Hurts is off to a bad start this year — sucks.

For years, most analysts have straight up denied that Jared Goff is an elite QB despite the Lions having the best team QB rating in the NFL since 2022. If you Google “should the Lions draft Malik Willis” you’ll find a LOT of hits.

Tua Tagovailoa was elite for one year, terrible the next. Brock Purdy went to the Super Bowl and now they might have to stick with Mac Jones. Oh, hey, it’s Mac Jones!

Instead of continuing to go on and on about how little we really understand about the QB position, I’ll say this: By the end of this season, there needs to be enough evidence that they can win with him as the team is currently constructed because this is the same group that’s going to be here for 2026 and probably mostly into 2027. If a QB can’t win in this environment where Carson Wentz (six teams in six years) has a 99.5 rating currently, then they aren’t likely to ever be great.

Carlton W… If you’re KOC and we assume that JJ McCarthy is healthy enough to play against the Eagles, do you bring him back or ride with Carson Wentz? And if the answer is Wentz, when (if at all) do you hand the keys back to McCarthy?

I was thrilled with the way KOC answered my question to him on Monday about JJ needing to lock into the “mandatory” parts of the offense in practice over the next week because it seemed like the best way to make the decision. Let McCarthy get into practice and evaluate whether he’s learned some things in terms of decision making and decisiveness from watching Wentz operate this offense. If he’s struggling with footwork and seeing where he’s supposed to go with the ball, then you can’t play him yet and he needs more time. If he’s looking great in those areas, play him.

How about those Eagles, by the way? Strength of schedule will always and forever be unpredictable.

Brent O….Was their success last week with a makeshift OL due more to the ‘next man up’ stepping up, or game planning? I’m sure it’s was a lot of both, but Skule looked overmatched as a Darrisaw replacement but functional replacing O’Neill. Brandel was solid at Center, and Huber was also functional. I know the game plan was to get the ball out of Wentz’s hands quickly, but is our depth better than we thought, or just everything aligning?

It was KOC having a good gameplan and Wentz getting rid of the ball along with a few guys playing gritty football. Sometimes you just need to hang on for dear life. I was having that discussion with Jeremiah Sirles the other day. Blake Brandel didn’t get an amazing PFF grade for the game and it’s clear to see where PFF dinged him when you watch the tape back. When you’re going up against Malik Collins and Mason Graham, you just have to battle your butt off and survive. That’s what he did in that game and it was darn impressive. But I promise you that if Wentz had held onto the ball for 3.0 seconds before throwing, he would have been sacked 8 times.

Designing a lot of those easy-button type throws to Jefferson or Addison underneath helped and then — for whatever reason — the Browns showed Wentz everything pre-snap on a lot of plays. I think KOC and the Browns made it pretty straightforward for him most of the time.

Where I’d be concerned about Wentz is when facing deception from the defense. Pittsburgh did it a lot and he hasn’t been with the offense long enough to really pick that stuff apart.

Robert S… Hi Matthew. Talk me into: Wentz is not really limited to backup level production any more than Darnold was, that he and KOC have really hit their stride after what really is only a short time together, and that Wentz proved to be a good, safe decision maker with occasional flashes against an excellent D.

When it comes to the Minnesota Vikings, it should never be that hard to talk anyone into a journeyman quarterback suddenly clicking and winning unexpectedly. The reason for Vikings history having so many examples is pretty obvious: Great receivers. Just like Randall Cunningham, Jeff George, Gus Frerotte and Case Keenum (I think Darnold is different, by the way), these guys were experienced enough to put the ball in the direction of elite receivers and benefitted greatly from it. We’ve already seen that from Wentz.

Would it be that shocking if he got more and more confident in the offense and won like 10 games? Considering the schedule ahead doesn’t look anywhere near as difficult as it once did, that’s totally on the table if they stick with him.

While making the playoffs is the goal, the problem with all of those journeymen since Cunningham is that there are usually limitations to how far you can go with them.

At the same time, if there was ever a year for somebody to randomly make the Super Bowl, it might be this year. There’s so many teams that are exactly the same strength. It’s the total opposite of last year where it was haves and have nots. Now there’s about 10 maybes.

Wade M….Please tell me we’re not going to keep starting Wentz. He’s a solid backup, but he’s not the long-term answer at quarterback. Like it or not, we need to find out if McCarthy is the Dude.

If there’s one thing I’m absolutely sure about it’s that I never have a dang clue about what’s going to happen next with this team, so I can’t guarantee anything.

Here’s what I know: If KOC says he isn’t ready, I’ll back KOC on his decision. I refuse to act like I know more about how to develop McCarthy than O’Connell, no matter how much I want to find out about McCarthy just like you and everyone else.

Arin J… Matthew thank you for all the knowledge you have shared with fans, I watched back 1998 title game. I used to think Cunningham was the 2nd half issue but after watching dropped balls, mental mistakes , coaching mistakes there was a little of everything . I’ve learned a lot just listening

Game management at the end, too.

Glad you enjoy the show! Never stop learning about football because the minute you think you know everything, it comes back to prove you don’t know anything.

Dermo Man….Hi Matt, great work as always. What is your view on Tai Feltons season so far, doing well on special teams but nothing really on offence - last week both the Buccs and Hawks had 2025 Day 3 WRs making plays. Is TF behind where we expected or is it to do with depth chart ahead of him compared to Seattle and Tampa. Have you heard anything from the Team about TF.

I think they should be really happy with Tai Felton. He developed a lot during the offseason and then has been excellent on special teams. He’s exactly where I expected him to be at this point. He was only “the guy” on his college team for one year, meaning that he was going to need time to grow. He has great speed and a really good mentality to work with Keenan McCardell and improve over this season. We’ll have a much better sense for where he’s at next year.

Every guy has their own set of circumstances and their own development timeline.

Brad L… Is there enough duct tape to hold the team together should the injury bug continue to bite following the bye?

It depends on who gets injured. They have shown to be just as strong and flawed as anybody else in the NFC. If they continue to have injury issues, then it’ll probably be a week-by-week type thing whether they can win or not. Based on the current QBs, I’m guessing it’ll be more volatile from week to week than we’ve seen in the past anyway.

Michael H… What is your take on Jonathan Allen so far?