JJ McCarthy started Saturday's preseason game against the Ravens at U.S. Bank Stadium, and he needed all of one series to remind everyone why the Vikings' quarterback room is still a story worth watching. He came into this one already stinging: Minnesota handed the 2026 starting job to Kyler Murray over the offseason, dropping McCarthy to QB2 after a rookie-year campaign that included 1,632 passing yards, 11 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and a 61.8 PFF grade across 310 snaps, according to Yahoo Sports. This preseason start was his chance to make some noise before the games start counting for someone else.
The noise came fast. Barstool Sports flagged a McCarthy touchdown pass early, the kind of throw that gets a fan base cautiously optimistic again.
JJ McCarthy drops a dime for a touchdown! https://t.co/wpjIwp6BG9
But the good vibes didn't last a full drive. A few minutes later, Barstool Gambling was posting the flip side: McCarthy uncorking a badly overthrown ball downfield that sailed well past his target, ending the possession in a turnover on downs instead of points.
That's the McCarthy experience in a nutshell for anyone who watched him last season -- the arm talent and the touchdown upside are real, but so are the erratic misses that turned drives into punts and possessions into turnovers. It's the exact tension that cost him the job to Murray in the first place, and it's why this preseason window matters more for him than it would for a comfortable starter just knocking off rust.
Barstool Gambling also dug up some pre-draft combine footage of McCarthy, captioned with a knowing "the signs were there…" -- a wink back at the scouting-report version of him before any of this played out in the NFL.
The signs were there… https://t.co/nvE9oWnz9T
It's a joke, not a real retrospective, but it lands because it's true: McCarthy has always been this exact package of flashes and head-scratchers, going back to his Michigan tape. The Vikings clearly still believe in the upside enough to hand him the ball for this exhibition slate, even with Murray installed as the guy going into the regular season. For McCarthy, every rep the rest of this preseason is an audition to stay firmly in the picture -- and Saturday's split personality performance is exactly why nobody in Minnesota is fully sold either way yet.