Murphy: The McCarthy experience has been exhausting
Brian Murphy writes about the rough journey Vikings fans have been on with the ups and downs of McCarthy this season
By Brian Murphy
Life in 2025 America is exhausting enough without wandering through the netherworld of the J.J. McCarthy Experiment in search of progress or purpose.
Nothing drains the soul like sifting through half-baked statistics and vague diagnoses to see whether McCarthy can play quarterback in the National Football League – or stay on the field long enough to determine anything.
After 20 taxing months, 8 ½ haphazard games and four serious injuries, McCarthy remains an enigma as the Vikings’ perennial quarterback quandary deepens. A right-hand injury may sideline the second-year franchise commodity for Minnesota’s two remaining and meaningless games, which might not be a bad thing. Central nervous systems are stressed enough over the holidays.
On Sunday, against a Giants team that appeared contractually obligated not to play offense, McCarthy added throwing hand to an expansive medical chart that already includes knee surgery, high ankle sprain and concussion. The 22-year-old has only been available for a quarter of Minnesota’s games since he was drafted in April 2024, which is more a cry for help than a statistic.
What makes this exhausting isn’t that McCarthy is bad. That would actually be easier. Bad quarterbacks are clean. They fail loudly, consistently, and free you from nuance. Kind of like his Week 10-12 starts.
McCarthy is more maddening: he is almost something. A constant tease. A quarterback Rorschach test where every half contains just enough promise to keep you hoping and just enough chaos to make you regret it.
Sunday was the perfect encapsulation. A first half that could generously be described as “mostly fine” as the Vikings forged a 13-3 lead thanks to McCarthy’s proficiency and another nifty scramble for a touchdown. The playbook was diverse. Protection was decent. Justin Jefferson was involved early.
Arrow up. Confidence building. You could almost see Kevin O’Connell mentally rehearsing the postgame “growth” monologue.
This was supposed to be the part where the Vikings put the Giants away in the second half like the 13-loss team they are. Instead, disaster arrived right on schedule, like it had a seat assignment.
Under a minute left in the half, a screen play. Hesitation. Smash. Brian Burns detonates McCarthy, the ball comes out, and the Giants score. Somewhere, Herm Edwards jumps out of a clown car. Somewhere else, Joe Pisarcik nods solemnly.
McCarthy’s hand is injured. Again, he doesn’t immediately report it. Again, you’re left wondering whether he hesitated because he couldn’t throw or because he couldn’t decide. Again, he exits the game. Again, the biggest question facing the franchise moves not forward, but backward.
Meanwhile, New York played optional offense, finishing with 141 total yards. Rookie quarterback Jaxon Dart threw for just 33. The Giants would find a way to lose yardage on fifth down if the league allowed it.
Max Brosmer, meanwhile, came in and was … competent. Dare I say calm. He converted a third-and-17 to Jefferson, helped salt away the game, and avoided throwing sidearm to a defender. Not exactly a high-leverage save, but how about a hold?
The Vikings won. The Great Race to 9-8 and a mid-range draft pick is alive and well. And somehow, we know less about McCarthy now than we did before kickoff.
That’s the real grind. After all this time, all these starts and stops, all these injuries, McCarthy has thrown just 220 passes this season, against a handful of defenses that are barely functioning, with only low-stakes spoiler games to measure McCarthy’s mettle.
And we likely won’t get that if McCarthy misses Thursday’s game against Detroit and the finale versus the Packers. Judging a quarterback on two games is absurd. We’ve been down that road before. But judging one on eight and a half spread across a season and a half of injuries might be even worse.
We’re left with hypotheticals, MRI results and which veteran quarterback the Vikings are going to target in March.
Development doesn’t work like this. Quarterbacks don’t grow in spurts between medical tents.
McCarthy isn’t exhausting because he’s hopeless. He’s exhausting because every time you think you’re getting an answer, he leaves the game holding a different body part.
Great article Brian 👏
I'm 💯 ready to move on from the JJ McCarthy experience.
I've been hoping that JJ would improve enough that we could grade him as "adequate." But at least Brosmer is "competent."