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Kevin Seifert
Eagan, Minn.– carson wentz The defeat came on Thursday night at the SoFi Stadium. Wearing a series of harnesses to keep his left shoulder together, Wentz was often in pain. Sacked five times and hit on four other occasions, he repeatedly held his hand as if to stop him from falling. After passing my final in minnesota vikings, lost 37-10 till los angeles chargersHe threw his helmet towards the bench, covered his face with a towel and then looked towards the sky, appearing to hold back tears.
The whole night was a reminder of a bygone era of gladiator football, when players were glorified for battling injuries that would have crippled ordinary mortals. As it turned out, Wentz was playing with a torn labrum and broken socket due to a dislocation suffered against the Browns on October 5. He said Thursday night that he can still do a good enough job of helping the team, and coach Kevin O’Connell said Wentz told him repeatedly that he can keep playing.
The scene was in service of a larger goal that would have been ridiculed in previous decades: protecting a pair of young quarterbacks who provide more long-term value to the Vikings than Wentz.
As long as Wentz has been in the game, the second-year quarterback JJ McCarthy Was unfit to play. As the designated emergency third quarterback, and in his sixth week of recovery from a right ankle sprain, McCarthy could only play if both Wentz and the No. 2 quarterback. max brosmer Rejected by medical authorities.
with tackle Christian Darrisaw And Brian O’Neill Both were sidelined with knee injuries, and the Vikings used a changed guard (Blake Brandel) At the center, O’Connell later said that he did not want to make the unheralded rookie Brosmer – much less McCarthy – a victim of the massacre.
O’Connell said, “Carson is an experienced player and he understands some of our situations [Thursday night]I think it’s too hard to ask [Brosmer] “Going out there for your first performance and going through it a little bit for the group.”
Wentz sheltered McCarthy and Broesmer for as long as he could, but now it’s time to find out if either of them can play. McCarthy is expected to resume his role as the starter on Sunday against detroit lions ,1 p.m. ET, FoxBrosmer, signed as an undrafted rookie in May, will be his backup. Together, they have thrown a total of 49 NFL passes and played 122 regular season snaps. McCarthy, the No. 10 pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, has missed 23 of a possible 25 games in his NFL career (including playoffs) due to an ankle sprain and a torn right meniscus that cost him all of last season.
The Vikings will likely sign a third quarterback to complete the depth chart, but for all intents and purposes, they have reached a critical point in their long-term team building process. The team postponed McCarthy’s return for as long as possible, believing that he was not equipped to continue his development if he could not attack fully on his right foot or escape the pocket effectively.
It now has 10 games, assuming McCarthy is healthy, to determine how to proceed next offseason.
McCarthy’s first two starts of 2025 left him with the NFL’s second-worst QBR (20.3). In the season opener, they made a strong comeback with a 27–24 win Chicago BearsAccounting for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. However, over the other seven quarters, he completed 55% of his passes for 214 yards while committing four turnovers and taking nine sacks.
After missing his rookie season, McCarthy needed time to adapt to the speed of the NFL game. He now has a short runway to do so until the end of his second season. This may seem dramatic for a quarterback who won’t turn 23 until January, but the Vikings will need to make at least some decisions on his future over the next 2 1/2 months.
Will McCarthy show enough development to enter 2026 as the Vikings’ unquestioned starter? Or they may have to find someone experienced to compete with them, such as indianapolis colts Paired this offseason Daniel Jones With a 2023 first-round pick Anthony Richardson Sr.,
Jones’ MVP-like performance has been a dagger to those who second-guessed the Vikings’ decision to hand the keys to McCarthy last spring. Jones spent the final six weeks of the 2024 regular season on Minnesota’s practice squad and declined an offer to return. Their 2024 starter, Sam DarnoldIs having an MVP like season Seattle Seahawks After the Vikings declined to use the franchise tag to retain him during the offseason. It has become impossible to ignore it aaron rodgersSeason of resurrection with pittsburgh steelersWhere he signed after offering his services to the Vikings.
The Vikings can’t do anything about those decisions now. He believed he had a strong team around McCarthy to support his development in real time. At 3-4, the Vikings may have overestimated the quality of their roster. But they’re still poised to generate a much larger sample size on McCarthy’s merits over the next 2 1/2 months. If he can’t stay healthy, Brosmer will be worth a look next time out.
A person with knowledge of the Vikings’ thinking joked that O’Connell left out Wentz in last Thursday’s game because Broesmer — who had a strong training camp and preseason — might prove to be a better short-term option than McCarthy. With Wentz gone for the season, now it’s time to figure out who – if anyone – the Vikings can move forward with at quarterback.
