The Vikings Have a Curveball QB Option
Well, that was a stinker. The Vikings played a terrible Sunday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons and deservedly lost the contest. A day later, that game stung even worse when Kevin O’Connell announced that J.J. McCarthy suffered another injury and will likely have to sit out for a while.
The Vikings Have a Curveball QB Option
Last year, it was a knee injury; this time, the ankle is causing problems. The young passer suffered a sprained ankle and once again, his progress is paused. If he’s indeed out, Carson Wentz is the obvious replacement.
It’ll be 29 days between the backup’s signing and the upcoming bout with the Cincinnati Bengals. That’s not quite Josh Dobbs’ level of not knowing the offense, but it would hardly be surprising if he had some issues.
Brett Rypien was the only offseason backup with a season in O’Connell’s system on his resume, but he was axed on cutdown day. Sam Howell was traded to Philadelphia and replaced by Wentz. But there’s still one person with a head start in getting to know the offense, and that’s rookie Max Brosmer.
It might be a little strange to struggle with one quasi-rookie and then turn to a real rookie, but Brosmer is way more experienced than his counterpart. McCarthy had 713 pass attempts in college, Brosmer 1,627. Furthermore, Brosmer showed in the preseason that he can run an offense not only efficiently, but reliably.
The former Golden Gopher threw for 364 yards in the preseason and found the endzone twice. No other Vikings QB tossed the ball in the endzone even once.
Head coach O’Connell told the media after the third preseason game: “He’s one of those guys that can go out and apply the thinking really fast as he progresses through our system and through games, so his ownership of really not getting a lot of reps early – didn’t get a lot of work in the spring – to be able to hit the ground in the way he did with his opportunities, and training camp gave him more opportunities, culminating with tonight, getting the chance to start the last preseason game.”
In a head-to-head matchup against Rypien in the final preseason game, Brosmer clearly won and clinched a spot on the 53-man roster. The two signal-callers shared reps, and the offense was functioning at a higher level with the rookie operating the system.
People are already speculating about Brosmer taking over. Consider Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio: “With Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy reportedly out up to four weeks due to a sprained ankle, Carson Wentz becomes the next man up. At some point over the next month, will undrafted rookie Max Brosmer become the next man in?”
He pointed to the 2023 season, in which the Vikings had four different starting quarterbacks because of Kirk Cousins’ Achilles injury.
“He’s not currently ready. Wentz, with 94 career regular-season starts, is — even if hasn’t been around for very long,” Florio noted. “We saw this movie two years ago. Wentz will play unless and until he squanders the opportunity. Unless and until the Vikings add another veteran, Brosmer will be the only alternative.”
In 2023, the Vikings replaced Cousins with Hall, as Nick Mullens was on IR with a back injury. Dobbs then replaced Hall due to a concussion suffered at the end of the first quarter. Later in the year, Mullens checked in for the struggling Dobbs. O’Connell tried Hall instead of Mullens against the Packers, but quickly turned back to Mullens.
Last year, Sam Darnold started all 18 games. Wentz has had his injury problems over the years, and his on-field play when healthy hasn’t been particularly good in half a decade. Neither a benching nor an injury can be ruled out, and Brosmer would be the next man up.
McCarthy said about Brosmer last month, “Yeah, Max is the man. Just super detail-oriented, works his butt off, I can’t say enough good things about that guy. He’s just an awesome human being.”
It’ll be Wentz to take the first snap on Sunday, but at some point, Brosmer might get his shot.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.