Vikings QB whose rookie year was wiped out by a torn meniscus, now entering his real first NFL season.
J.J. McCarthy tore his meniscus in the 2024 preseason and missed his entire rookie year. The 2025 sophomore season was the actual NFL debut and the results were mixed: 11 starts, two playoff appearances, an early injury that bumped him for veteran Daniel Jones. Year three under Kevin O'Connell is the real test.
Path to the league
Michigan quarterback who won the 2023 CFP National Championship and went 27-1 as a starter in his college career. Vikings took him 10th overall in 2024. Suffered a torn meniscus in his first preseason game and never appeared in a 2024 regular-season game.
Career highlights
2023 College Football Playoff National Champion (Michigan). 27-1 college record as a starter. Captain at Michigan three seasons. Highest career college winning percentage of any QB in the past 20 years (.964).
2025 season recap
Started Week 1 then missed three games with a high ankle sprain. Returned to lead Minnesota to a 9-8 record and a Wild Card berth. Final line: 2,840 passing yards, 19 TDs, 9 INTs across 11 games. Beat the Bears in primetime in Week 14 with a 4-TD performance. Looks more comfortable now that the Jefferson-Addison-Hockenson trio is healthy again.
Sources
- Wikipedia: J. J. McCarthy
- Pro Football Reference: J.J. McCarthy
Statistics
2025 season and career2025 Season · Passing
10 games played▶Passing · career
| Year | Team | GP | CMP | ATT | YDS | TD | INT | RTG | QBR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | vikings | 10 | 140 | 243 | 1,632 | 11 | 12 | 72.6 | 35.6 |
▶Rushing · career
| Year | Team | GP | CAR | YDS | AVG | TD | LNG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | vikings | 10 | 37 | 181 | 4.9 | 4 | 26 |
Player Profile
Background
- Position
- Quarterback
- Group
- offense
- College
- Michigan
- Hometown
- La Grange Park, IL, USA
- Age
- 23
- Status
- active
Latest news about J.J. McCarthy
All news →Vikings Hire Ex-Bears GM Ryan Pace as Football Adviser to Nolan Teasley
Minnesota adds a former NFC North rival's general manager to its reshaped front office, giving new GM Nolan Teasley a veteran sounding board.
Justin Jefferson stays neutral on Vikings QB battle: "It's more going to be a coach's call"
Minnesota's star receiver says he will throw with both Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy over the summer break, but the man catching the passes is not picking the man throwing them.
The Vikings' QB competition has cooled into something 'very professional'
After the OTA gap that favored Murray, the framing around Minnesota's quarterback room has settled. Both players, and the staff, are calling it businesslike. The decision still waits for training camp.
The Vikings hired Nolan Teasley to clean up a $100 million cap mess and run a roster built to win now
Minnesota poached Seattle's assistant GM four months after firing Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. Teasley becomes the primary decision-maker on a contender with an unresolved quarterback competition.
At the second Vikings OTA, the QB gap wasn't close. Murray made every best throw of the day.
Both quarterbacks took first-team reps against the starting defense. One of them threw a deep ball Jordan Addison caught in stride at the goal line. The other made Addison leap and redirect. The competition looked less even than the press conferences suggested.
McCarthy on Murray: 'It's just like being in high school with another person on the other side of the room'
J.J. McCarthy says the competition with Kyler Murray at Vikings OTAs feels normal. Murray threw the two best passes of Wednesday's session. Kevin O'Connell hasn't named a starter.
