EAGAN, Minn. — Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy pulled himself from Sunday’s 16-3 victory over the Green Bay Packers because of discomfort in his right throwing hand, ending his first season as an NFL starter in a familiar place.
McCarthy had been attempting to play with a hairline fracture in the hand, one of three significant injuries that has cost him playing time this season and the fourth since the Vikings made him the No. 10 pick in the 2024 draft. Sunday, he completed 14 of 23 passes for 188 yards before walking to the sideline after the first play of the second half and summoning backup Max Brosmer, who played the rest of the game.
McCarthy called it “one of the hardest choices I’ve had to make in my life so far,” but said he was heeding a lesson he learned after ignoring pain in that hand in Week 16 against the New York Giants. On that day, McCarthy didn’t inform the Vikings until after he dropped the ball on an aborted screen pass. In subsequent conversations, coach Kevin O’Connell implored McCarthy to be more forthcoming in real time.
“I was happy I made the right decision,” McCarthy said. “I learned from something from the prior week, feeling the momentum of the game, how well the defense is playing. When it gets to a point where you feel like your body is going to say, ‘No, you can’t do that. You’ve got to put your ego aside and understand you’ve got to do what’s best for the team.’ And it’s a similar situation that came up today, and it killed me to pull myself out. Never done that before, but I got to do what’s best for my team.”
McCarthy had previously bruised the hand in Week 10 against the Baltimore Ravens and wore a bandage on it for two games. But he said Sunday that he believes the bandage impacted his accuracy and didn’t want to wear it moving forward. The hand began throbbing at halftime, however, and he said he realized after his final play — an 8-yard pass in the flat to receiver Justin Jefferson — that he couldn’t have thrown it any further.
NFL players rarely take themselves out of games, and McCarthy said he had to make a “grown-man decision.”
He added: “I got one person on my shoulder saying, ‘Go in there, you got this, it’ll be fine.’ And then another person [on the other shoulder saying], ‘Hey, maybe this is a test, that you’re being tested to make the right choice.’ So I listened to the one that was on my right shoulder and went from there.”
McCarthy missed five games earlier this season because of a high right ankle sprain and one because of a concussion. Sunday was his 10th NFL start, but he has failed to finish two and has missed a total of 25 games, including playoffs, because of injuries in his career. All four injuries have occurred when he was attempting to extend a play beyond its original design, either inside or outside the pocket, and he said Sunday that he thinks he can minimize them by improving his overall performance.
“I feel like just playing allowed me to gain the experiences, metaphorically and literally, in terms of the pain I would feel,” he said, “getting a little too close to the pocket. Not getting the ball out on time. Being bad with my eyes. Having the defense disguise something and not react instinctively. There’s all these things that happen before the injury that could be the difference in you not being in that vulnerable position. So I just need to continue to work on everything that it is to be a good quarterback in this league, and I feel like the injuries will slowly fade away with just more situational awareness and presence.”
McCarthy played 52% of the Vikings’ snaps this season and attempted only 243 passes, a relatively small sample size for the Vikings to evaluate him and craft a plan for the position in 2026. Sources have told ESPN that the Vikings are unlikely to replace him entirely but almost certainly will acquire a quarterback, via free agency or trade, who can credibly start for them in 2026 if McCarthy fails to make significant improvement.
O’Connell said Sunday that he “can’t wait to work with [McCarthy] in the offseason and absolutely look forward to the continued development and improvement,” and McCarthy said he believes he should have the team’s trust.
“In my opinion, I feel like I have,” he said. “But at the end of the day, they have their own opinion. They have their own perspective. They see things different. They hear things from different places. And I just feel confident going into this offseason and content with where I’m at because I truly feel like I know they know who I am as an individual and the potential and the capability that this offense could have with me at the helm. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the guys. And from here on out — if I’m here, if I’m not — I love every single one of those guys and had a frigging blast playing with them.”
Comments