What's left to find out about the Vikings before Week 1?
There's only a few weeks left before Week 1 but still questions to be answered
By Matthew Coller
The Minnesota Vikings have turned the corner on training camp and now they can see the Week 1 light at the end of the tunnel. This week the team will have two joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens and then they will play their second preseason game of the summer. After that, they’ll take on Denver in the final preseason game, cut down the roster and get ready for the Green Bay Packers.
After a dozen practices and one preseason game, we have learned a lot. But we don’t know everything just yet. What’s left to find out? Let’s have a look…
Who’s QB2?
Once Kyler Murray was named the starting quarterback, Carson Wentz started getting more reps during practice. That may have been just to get him ramped up for the preseason game but it was noticeable in practice and during the game that Wentz looked fairly locked into the offense. He got the ball out of his hands quickly during the game and completed 9-of-14 passes, including a fade touchdown pass to Myles Price.
JJ McCarthy struggled against the Giants. While he did catch a bad break on a drop and another pass that could have been flagged for interference, he airmailed his first third down attempt and then took a sack on a third down later in the first half.
It stands to reason that the Vikings shouldn’t weigh the handful of passes in the preseason heavily vs. what they have seen in practice but Kevin O’Connell needs to be able to trust his backup to execute the offense with comfort and there wasn’t much of that from McCarthy in the game.
Over the next two weeks, it’s possible that O’Connell will be holding another QB battle. The reps during joint practices could give us an indication. If Wentz is getting work with the second team, it will be hard to deny that there’s consideration for him to be QB2.
Will there be trade buzz surrounding JJ McCarthy?
It doesn’t seem like a favorable idea for the Vikings to trade McCarthy and leave themselves with only two QBs with prior experience on the roster but there has to be a point where two things could align: 1) The Vikings aren’t going to have him as QB2 and they don’t feel like he’s going to be helpful in the QB room 2) another team is looking for a backup or a project or both and is will to deal halfway decent capital for him.
The 49ers ran into a similar situation in 2023 with Trey Lance and moved him for a fourth-round pick. There are a handful of teams that would make sense for a project QB like the Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, Dolphins or Cleveland Browns and then a few others who don’t have viable backups like the Cowboys, Patriots, Chargers or Broncos.
With the Vikings getting to their third-string QB twice in four years under O’Connell, they would need to have another option as QB3 to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
Thus far there haven’t been any reports of trade interest from the Vikings or around the league but it could start to brew in the coming weeks of McCarthy struggles in joint practices and preseason.
What will the safety room look like?
On Sunday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network confirmed what seemed clear on Saturday afternoon by reporting that Jamal Adams suffered a knee injury that will keep him out for the entire season.
Now what do the Vikings do at safety? Naturally a lot of people connected Adams’ injury with the likelihood of Harrison Smith returning but it’s hard to say whether that would have any influence on Smith’s decision.
O’Connell said that rookie Jakobe Thomas has been dealing with a back issue, which has limited his practice availability. If he is ready to go for the regular season, then the Vikings would still have three safeties with experience and a talented youngster.
If Smith isn’t coming back, would they look to the market to add one more experienced player? Or does Flores believe in Josh Metellus, Jay Ward and Theo Jackson?
Will there be an OLB addition?
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