Vikings trade J.J. McCarthy to Giants. What does the move mean for their future at QB?

MINNEAPOLIS — Two years after he became the highest-drafted quarterback in franchise history, J.J. McCarthy no longer plays for the Minnesota Vikings.

The team traded McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 draft, to the New York Giants on Monday for a fifth-round pick, ending the 23-year-old’s time in Minnesota after just 10 starts in two seasons. The trade is pending a physical.

By trading McCarthy, the Vikings will recoup more than $2.5 million of salary cap space, while incurring $3.1 million of dead money.

McCarthy missed his entire rookie season with a torn right meniscus before being named the Vikings’ starter in 2025. He completed only 57.6% of his passes in his 10 starts while throwing 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

The Vikings signed Kyler Murray to a one-year contract in March, and named him the starter at the end of a training camp competition with McCarthy on Aug. 11.

Carson Wentz was later named the Vikings backup over McCarthy.

McCarthy‘s only game on the active roster for the Vikings this season was Week 2 in Chicago, when he was Wentz’s backup with Murray out because of a concussion.

Before injuring his right ankle thanks to a series of low hits in the Vikings’ second exhibition game against the Baltimore Ravens, McCarthy completed 9 of 17 passes for 115 yards in the preseason.

McCarthy said after the Ravens game he didn’t expect to miss time because of the injury, and the team had planned for McCarthy to play the first half of its final preseason game on Aug. 28

But after splitting snaps with Wentz in one practice and sitting out of another, sources said the quarterback told the team he wasn’t comfortable enough with the health of his ankle to play in the preseason finale.

After the team reduced its roster to 53 players, Vikings general manager Nolan Teasley said McCarthy had returned from the ankle injury and was a full participant in practice.

Teasley would not discuss at the time whether he had received trade interest in McCarthy, but said he was “pleased that he’s part of our present version of the Minnesota Vikings, and excited about his future.”

All three of McCarthy’s drives in the preseason opener against the Giants ended with punts. Against the Ravens, McCarthy had a 50-yard completion to receiver Tai Felton, but then missed end-zone throws to Felton and receiver Myles Price, causing the Vikings to turn the ball over on downs.

McCarthy was no longer viewed as the long-term answer at QB

It took McCarthy only 337 days to lose his starting job after leading the team to a comeback victory over the Bears in his first NFL start on Sept. 8, 2025. His play after that created too much uncertainty for the Vikings to regard him as their long-term answer at quarterback.

McCarthy missed seven games, and left two others early, because of injuries last season. A high ankle sprain kept him out for five games in September and October and a concussion sidelined him for one in November.

Then, he sustained a small hairline fracture in his right hand on Dec. 21 that caused him to leave a game against the Giants early. McCarthy missed the Vikings’ Christmas Day win over the Detroit Lions before taking himself out of the season finale against the Green Bay Packers because of the injury.

Between the injuries, McCarthy was erratic enough that the team seemed to lose patience with him.

He struggled with accuracy and touch, firing line drives that sometimes arrived ahead of receivers or ricocheted off their fingers. Coach Kevin O’Connell tried using McCarthy’s six-week ankle rehab to refine the quarterback’s footwork and mechanics. He tabled that idea in December, saying he wanted McCarthy to focus on decision-making the rest of the season.

Other seemingly immature moments, like the quarterback’s “Nine” alter ego, or his decision to do the Griddy on his way to the end zone against the Dallas Cowboys (after O’Connell and running back Aaron Jones Sr. warned him not to do it during practice), drew skeptical reactions from teammates and coaches.

McCarthy also struggled to connect with Justin Jefferson, perhaps more than any quarterback in the star receiver’s career.

According to TruMedia, McCarthy had a passer rating of just 42.9 when targeting Jefferson last season, throwing seven of his 12 picks on passes to the receiver. McCarthy completed 52.6% of his throws to Jefferson; no other QB with more than 20 throws to the four-time Pro Bowler has ever had a completion percentage below 66.9.

The Vikings’ decision to go with Murray seemed, at least in part, like an attempt to reinvigorate the receiver heading into his seventh season.

McCarthy heads to Giants after Jaxson Dart injury

After the Vikings named Murray the starter, McCarthy said he wanted to stay in Minnesota, and O’Connell still sounded hopeful about McCarthy’s future.

“I genuinely believe that J.J. is going to work as hard as ever,“ O’Connell said. “I know he’s going to be ready to go. I know he’s going to continue to improve, and the long-term mindset of him as a Minnesota Viking is still absolutely part of the long-term vision.”

The quarterback’s rookie deal runs through 2027, and the Vikings would have had to make a decision on his fifth-year option by early May.

That decision will now belong to the Giants, who traded for McCarthy after losing Jaxson Dart to a season-ending knee injury. McCarthy figures to begin his time with the Giants as a backup to Jameis Winston, though he could get on the field later this season.

The Vikings had seen enough to decide they were comfortable surrendering their rights to McCarthy’s work. They will move forward with Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz for 2026, and if Murray finds enough of a rhythm on offense that the Vikings feel confident about his future, they could sign him to a long-term deal after this season. But Murray has plenty to prove before the team would consider such a move.

Right now, it appears the 2027 offseason will be the Vikings’ fifth in a row facing questions about their future at the game’s most important position.

Making McCarthy the fifth of six quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2024 draft was supposed to ward off such uncertainty. The Vikings coveted Drake Maye, who went No. 3 overall to the New England Patriots, in that draft, but still believed they could develop McCarthy into a successful quarterback.

The 2027 draft could be stocked with intriguing options at QB, but it remains to be seen whether the Vikings will try to build around another young passer so soon after McCarthy.

They hoped that by this point in McCarthy’s contract, they’d have a stable future at QB. Instead, McCarthy ultimately started 18 fewer games than any first-round QB in Vikings history.

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