From Indy: Everything is on the table for Vikings at quarterback
Kevin O'Connell and Rob Brzezinski talked at the NFL Combine about the future at quarterback
By Matthew Coller
INDIANAPOLIS — If you wondered if Kevin O’Connell still thinks about the blazing hot day in Berea, Ohio, that he simultaneously announced that JJ McCarthy would miss the entire 2024 season and that he felt McCarthy had shown enough in his first training camp to believe he could be the team’s franchise quarterback, you got your answer on Tuesday.
At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, O’Connell spoke with Purple Insider, ESPN, The Athletic, the Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune about the Vikings’ current quarterback situation, which is currently muddled due to McCarthy’s injury history and sub-par performance in his 10 games as a starting quarterback.
His comments about McCarthy’s standing with the organization centered around his memorable statement prior to joint practices with the Browns. O’Connell said that McCarthy had shown all the traits during that competitive 2024 training camp that made the team believe he could be QB1 for a long time. He was asked bluntly whether he believed McCarthy could still become the franchise QB he envisioned and the head coach answered, “yes because he’s shown those [traits].”
However, there was an important addendum this time.
“A lot of those feelings are still the same, it’s just the timeline is in a different place for all of us than it was [in 2024],” O’Connell said.
The timeline could refer to a couple different things. First, the roster as a whole. When we look at the way the Vikings built the current iteration, it traces all the way back to when Kwesi Adofo-Mensah took apart much of the Zimmer-Spielman group that led them to 13 wins in 2022 and began the rebuilding phase that led them to McCarthy and a highly-expensive roster.
The 2024, 2025 and 2026 seasons were supposed to be the years where the Vikings could push the chips to the middle of the table around McCarthy’s rookie quarterback contract. Two of those years are now gone and the core that they built during that time is two years older than when McCarthy was supposed to take over. Some players are still in the middle of their prime like Justin Jefferson and Jonathan Greenard but many have entered a late-prime phase like Andrew Van Ginkel, Brian O’Neill, Jonathan Allen, TJ Hockenson, Blake Cashman and Byron Murphy Jr.
No longer can the Vikings look three years into the future with their roster and have a clear understanding of which guys are still going to be performing at their peak.
The timeline for Jefferson has changed. He is the most decorated receiver in the NFL since coming into the league, yet he hasn’t won a playoff game and his patience with the poor QB play in 2025 shouldn’t be expected to last. His enormous contract also comes along with some key upcoming dates where an extension would not only make sense but be required to lower his large cap hits. Keeping him in purple is absolutely vital and 2026 is a key year for that.
The timeline for O’Connell has changed. In 2024, he was a third-year coach who just landed his young QB. That felt like the beginning of him truly taking the reins of the franchise. Now he is entering Year 5 without a playoff win and the general manager who worked alongside him has been fired. While O’Connell has proven worthy of putting a highly-competitive product on the field and forming a very strong culture within the building, the Wilfs have historically not been kind to coaches who miss the postseason. And considering they spent more in cash on this roster than any other team in the NFL, per OverTheCap.com, well, there is urgency.
This leads us to the questions asked of O’Connell and acting general manager Rob Brzezinski about the direction of the quarterback position in 2026.
One thing KOC made clear at the end of the season was that he wanted another quality quarterback in the room alongside McCarthy. But when he said that he wanted a “highly competitive” QB situation, what did that really mean?
Someone to start? Someone to compete for QB1 with JJ McCarthy? Someone to play a backup role and push him?
Inside the JW Marriot in Indianapolis, neither O’Connell or Brzezinski ruled anything out.
“We are going to try to evaluate all the options that we may have to enhance our quarterback room at the different levels of that,” O’Connell said.
The head coach had some math prepared as well. He noted that in 2022 and 2024 when the team had availability and relatively consistent play at the QB position that they were able to win 13 and 14 games.
“When the quarterback position, from an availability standpoint and production and consistency factor of that guy doing his job at a baseline level that allows the rest of our offense and team to play a certain way, we’ve won quite a few games,” O’Connell said.
So are they looking at potential clear starting QB options like Kirk Cousins, Kyler Murray, Derek Carr, Malik Willis etc.?
“What we do know is that we need a level of baseline quarterback play,” Brzezinski said. “We are going to explore every opportunity. We can’t manufacture anything that’s not there. Number one is, what are the options? Is it reciprocal? Is it financially doable? There’s a lot of factors.”
On McCarthy, the long-time Vikings front office exec said:
“I can tell you we have a ton of confidence in JJ McCarthy. He’s been through a lot of adversity. This is a really, really hard job with a lot of pressure. With our organization and our history, everybody is yearning for that franchise quarterback. I’m not sure that it’s fair all the time, the pressure and the criticism.”
What are we supposed to make of all this?
Well, for starters, it’s a lot of words to avoid the statement, “JJ McCarthy is our quarterback.”
It does not seem to be a stretch to say that O’Connell and Brzezinski’s commentary sets up for a bridge starting quarterback to get the franchise back on track in 2026. It also appears reasonable to suggest that the bridge might ultimately lead them back to McCarthy.
If the Vikings’ stance heading into free agency is that McCarthy has shown them enough to believe that he could someday become the QB1 that they dreamed about on draft day 2024 but that he needs a “competitive” environment to continue his development in order to get there, then the potential elder statesman would appear to be an ideal scenario.
It probably isn’t accidental that O’Connell mentioned how competitive they were when Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnold were under center. Those were imperfect veteran quarterbacks who were capable of executing the complete offense rather than the “simplified” version that the Vikings were rolling out for McCarthy at the end of the year. When either Cousins or Darnold started, the Vikings are 31-11, by the way.
The idea of having an experienced quarterback take over for a year and then reassessing where McCarthy stands would be a roundabout way of getting to a Jordan Love plan. Yes, they would miss the rookie QB contract boat, but might be able to turn the ship in the right direction in terms of development by having McCarthy work behind a veteran.
Another quote that has to be on O’Connell’s mind is when he said that franchises often fail QBs more than QBs fail franchises. The Vikings may think the best way to not fail McCarthy is to put him in a situation where they can be patient allow him to grow without the incredible pressure that was put on his shoulders in 2025 following a 14-win 2024 season.
But there are challenges to acquiring any of the veteran QBs. They would have to trade for Derek Carr. It’s possible the best way to get Murray is via trade as well. If that’s the case, then what are they giving up?
One thing Brzezinski said on Tuesday was that he won’t be selling out the entire franchise’s future to try to win in 2026. The salary cap may be flexible but it is very real and will become a serious challenge if the Vikings make sacrifices to bring in a band-aid solution.
The same goes for any free agent. How much does Cousins want to come back? What is Malik Willis looking for in free agency? Does Rodgers want to play another year or is he planning to retire?
Are any of these players actually good enough to compete in the playoffs? Or would they be better off having McCarthy truly compete with someone and give him a legitimate chance to show that he’s taken a huge step forward this offseason?
“I don’t know that we’re ruling anything out,” Brzezinski said. “We have a couple of weeks, so we are… casting a wide net.”
I get what they’re going for with the baseline comments, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, Kirk and Darnold both gave them QB play that was much better than baseline, despite how it ended for both of them. Maybe the rest of the team is going to be better and you can get away with less at QB, but they are very likely not going to get QB play on par with what they got from Kirk and Darnold.
Great article and podcast today. You call it the Purple Insider, and your access to O'Connell and Brzezinski proves your point. Thanks for your hard work.