J.J. McCarthy’s standing with the Minnesota Vikings has shifted again, and the timing has invited a familiar kind of NFL rumor.
With Kyler Murray back as the Vikings’ starter, Carson Wentz has slid into the backup role and McCarthy is listed as the third quarterback heading into Week 3.
That depth-chart reality would normally quiet conversation about the former first-round pick. Instead, injuries around the league have put his name back in trade talk, most notably with the New York Giants after Jaxson Dart was lost for the season.
Tom Pelissero of The Ringer addressed that scenario in his Sept. 26 notebook, weighing whether McCarthy could become a realistic option if Jameis Winston’s play continues to look like it did against the Los Angeles Rams.
“McCarthy is an intriguing option,” Pelissero wrote. “The Giants extensively scouted him and the rest of the 2024 quarterback class before deciding to wait and take Dart in 2025. While injuries derailed McCarthy’s time as QB1 in Minnesota, he was 6-4 as the starter last season. He has the athletic ability to run some of the QB movement concepts from Nagy’s playbook that figure to be largely dormant while Winston is in the lineup.”
The contract picture is part of the appeal.
“McCarthy is still in the third year of his rookie deal, making him a relatively low-cost option, with total 2027 compensation of about $3.775 million guaranteed.
He played for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. And at age 23, he’s less than four months older than Dart.” Those details matter in a market where teams often pay a premium for even modest quarterback insurance.
Pelissero also framed a trade as more than a short-term patch.
“Trading for another young QB now also could be a way to get a jump start on finding potential competition for Dart in 2027,” he added. “The Giants believe in Dart, and he was excellent in the season-opening win against Dallas. But his play style creates injury risk, and he will have missed 17 of 34 possible career games by season’s end.”
In that reading, McCarthy would not merely fill a hole. He would give New York a younger arm to evaluate against Dart once the 2026 season ends.
Not everyone in Minnesota’s media orbit thinks that experiment would work. Judd Zulgad of “Purple Daily” argued that thrusting McCarthy into New York’s current situation would be asking too much of a young quarterback still finding his footing.
Last season, after missing all of 2024, McCarthy posted a 72.6 passer rating with 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 10 games. Those numbers leave room for both hope and skepticism, which is why the rumor has legs even if a deal never materializes.
Whether the Giants or another club actually pursues McCarthy before the deadline remains an open question. For now, the insider update has done what these reports usually do: it has turned a third-string listing into a live conversation about cost, fit and how much patience two franchises still have with young quarterbacks.
