The Minnesota Vikings used a top-10 pick on J.J. McCarthy in 2024 and has almost nothing to show for it.
He missed his entire rookie year, then posted a 57.6 percent completion rate, 11 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions in 2025. Kyler Murray won the job this summer. Carson Wentz has outplayed McCarthy in camp. A minor ankle injury kept him out of the preseason finale.
The writing is on the wall: the Vikings might try to trade the former first-rounder.
That is why a Colts proposal involving Anthony Richardson — is worth taking seriously, at least according to Zachary Rotman of FanSided.
Indianapolis is done with its 2023 No. 4 overall pick after three injury-marred, inconsistent seasons and a trade request that never produced a market.
Richardson is 24, still explosive, and still physically unlike almost anyone else at the position. He has one year left on his rookie deal. After August 1, Minnesota’s cap hit would be modest. The Vikings would send McCarthy and, in most versions of the idea, a conditional mid-round pick.
From a Vikings angle, this is not a vote of confidence in McCarthy. It is an admission that the original plan failed and that the organization should still be in the business of collecting high-ceiling quarterbacks while Kevin O’Connell is here. O’Connell has already rebuilt Sam Darnold.
Murray is on a one-year prove-it deal. Adding Richardson gives Minnesota another mobile option with rare traits if Murray walks or gets hurt. Keeping both young first-rounders as backups would be messy. Moving McCarthy and replacing him with Richardson is cleaner.
The risk is obvious. Richardson’s completion percentage sits near 50 percent for his career. He has been benched, injured, and publicly at odds with his first franchise.
Minnesota would be swapping one stalled project for another. The difference is the physical profile and the remaining contract. McCarthy has two years left but almost no trade value. Richardson has one year left and a body that still looks like a first-round bet.
Vikings fans should not pretend this is a franchise-altering win. It is damage control with upside. McCarthy was supposed to be the long-term answer. He is not. Richardson was supposed to be Indianapolis’s answer. He is not.
A swap gives both players a reset and gives Minnesota one more swing at a former top-five pick without mortgaging the future.
If O’Connell cannot get anything out of Richardson in a year, the experiment ends cheaply. If he can, the Vikings will have turned a sunk first-round cost into another lottery ticket. That is the only rational play left with McCarthy.
