Max Brosmer Becoming the Full-Time Starter Is a Real Possibility
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy is injured.
The young signal caller reported concussion symptoms to the team after the game on Sunday in Green Bay, thus leading to some evaluations, which resulted in the Vikings placing him in concussion protocol.
Of course, right? A third injury (in addition to the hand injury that didn’t cost him any playing time) to the man who was supposed to be the savior of the Minnesota Vikings. The team finally spends a top-ten draft pick on the position, and not only is he getting hurt at every turn, but he might also just be terrible.
I don’t need to go on about how this is awful news for McCarthy personally. Not only is he dealing with a third injury that’s set to cost him at least a game in his 19-month-old career, but he is now in serious jeopardy of losing his starting job to an undrafted free agent of Minnesota Golden Gopher lore, Max Brosmer.
J.J. McCarthy is in real danger of losing his starting job to Max Brosmer.
To preface this all, it’s not a guarantee that Brosmer is the starter on Sunday in Seattle. McCarthy could very well clear concussion protocol by the time the game rolls around. However, our own Janik Eckardt pointed out that players do usually miss at least one game when entering the protocol.
If I were a gambling man (I am), then I’d feel safe placing a bet that Max Brosmer will get the nod in Week 13. This is bad news for J.J. McCarthy. I am not going to sit here and say that Brosmer is going to light the world on fire, but the issue for McCarthy is that it’s very hard to play worse than he has.
It’s hard to imagine that the Vikings would just hand Max Brosmer the starting job after one average game of NFL QB, but one average game of NFL QB would be better than what McCarthy has provided in his career so far.
Brosmer has technically already played this year, appearing in garbage time against the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers. In those appearances, Brosmer threw for a combined five completions on eight attempts for 42 yards with no scores or interceptions.
Vikings had to tell Max Bromser to “back off” during training camp.
Sep 21, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer (12) and wide receiver Adam Thielen (19) following the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
Heavy Sports’ Trevor Squire detailed the Vikings having to tell Max Brosmer to back off a bit during training camp:
“An interesting wrinkle in Brosmer’s potential first career start this week goes back to training camp. Brosmer was turning heads and pushing to get better to the point that the Vikings coaching staff had to tell him to back off as their focus was on getting McCarthy ready for the season, according to Minnesota Star Tribune beat reporter Andrew Krammer.
He told me earlier in training camp, ‘I live here and coaches have to tell me to back off sometimes, like hey man, it’s gonna be alright,’ Krammer said. ‘Well with J.J., I think they’re telling Max Brosmer to back off because they need more time with JJ. Max said, like, I have to understand I’m not the priority.'”
It’s an interesting thing to keep your eye on as the Vikings continue to try to find out if McCarthy truthfully is as bad as he’s been playing. But suddenly, they may find out that their future of the franchise has been someone else on the roster all along.
