Since their electric, come-from-behind season-opening win over the Chicago Bears, the hype around J.J. McCarthy quarterbacking the Minnesota Vikings has fizzled out. The former first-round pick, touted as the Vikings’ franchise quarterback, has seemingly become an afterthought since sustaining a high-ankle sprain in Week 2. He was able to finish the game, but the diagnosis of his sprain wasn’t as encouraging.
The expectation was that McCarthy would be shelved for two to four weeks. However, Thursday night’s primetime meeting with the Los Angeles Chargers will be his fifth consecutive missed game, and the Vikings have already had their bye week.
When Will the Minnesota Vikings Have J.J. McCarthy Back Under Center?
McCarthy has improved enough to function as the Vikings’ emergency quarterback in back-to-back weeks. That was his job this past weekend in the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and it will be again Thursday night.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said that if the game against the Chargers was scheduled to be played on a Sunday rather than on a short week, McCarthy would be healthy enough to rejoin the lineup. If that’s the case, that means the Vikings will likely start McCarthy on Nov. 2, 2025, against the Detroit Lions.
“Earlier this morning, we did put J.J. McCarthy through an on-field workout just to see if he had a chance to make it this week. J.J., the medical staff, myself, we’re all encouraged about where he’s at and the progress he’s making, but he’s just not there.” O’Connell said on Tuesday, according to the team website.
He added, “If this were a Sunday game, maybe it would be a little bit of a different story, and we could push it throughout the week and see where he’s at toward the end of the week.”
“All indications” point to #Vikings QB JJ McCarthy returning next week against the #Lions, @TomPelissero stated via @KFAN1003. pic.twitter.com/GXeUSazuex
— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) October 23, 2025
The entire dilemma has been somewhat perplexing, from the extended timeline for his injury to evidently being healthy enough to play if drastic circumstances called for it. There’s some speculation that the Vikings may not feel that McCarthy is entirely ready, which would be understandable considering he redshirted his rookie season with a knee injury.
If that were true, then the Vikings’ decision not to re-sign Sam Darnold in the offseason would be even more of a whiff. The Vikings finished with a regular-season record of 14-3 under Darnold, who enjoyed a career resurgence. He signed with the Seattle Seahawks in free agency and has been stellar to this point, positioning them with a 5-2 record through seven weeks.
Carson Wentz Has Given the Vikings Mixed Results
It’s not often that a former No. 2 overall pick and Super Bowl-winning quarterback is at your disposal, but the Vikings wasted little time in signing Carson Wentz after McCarthy’s injury.
After becoming something of a journeyman despite a successful five-year stint with the Philadelphia Eagles, Wentz stepped in as the Vikings’ starting quarterback on Sept. 21. Currently, Wentz has a PFSN QB Impact score of 77.8, graded C+. He completed 70 percent of his passes and threw a pair of touchdowns as the Vikings throttled the Cincinnati Bengals in a 48-10 landslide.
The Vikings are 2-2 under Wentz, with an opportunity to improve their placement in the NFC North on Thursday night. They’re currently last in the division with a 3-3 record, while the Green Bay Packers are frontrunners at 4-1-1. If that’s going to be the case, Wentz has to take better care of the football. He’s thrown four interceptions in as many games and fumbled twice.
