Minnesota Vikings JJ McCarthy Plan Revealed

This season, the Minnesota Vikings will have another new quarterback under center, and this time it’s a redshirt rookie coming off knee surgery.

Thankfully, the Vikings have Kevin O’Connell as their head coach. If he can fix Sam Darnold, lift Kirk Cousins and make others like Josh Dobbs semi competent, developing JJ McCarthy should be a breeze, right?

After suffering a season-ending knee injury during a preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders last season, McCarthy essentially redshirted his rookie year. But now, the 2024 No. 10 overall pick is sitting comfortably atop the depth chart, which has raised questions surrounding the MN Vikings’ plan for him this preseason.

Minnesota opens their exhibition slate against the Houston Texans on August 9th and now, it looks like the plan for our favorite University of Michigan product is becoming clear.

McCarthy to start for MN Vikings against Houston

The old four-game preseason was more predictable, in terms of when starters would play. Now that there are only three games, teams operate less in-sync.

NFL Draft and fantasy football expert Thor Nystrom, who’s also a big Vikings fan and McCarthy supporter has confirmed that JJ will play in game one of Minnesota’s exhibition schedule.

I can confirm something that the Vikings have strongly hinted at — JJ McCarthy will play in the first preseason game (vs HOU/Aug 9), but the plan is to sit him out in the last 2 (vs NEP/Aug 16 | at TEN/Aug 22).

— Thor Nystrom (@thorku) July 28, 2025

With McCarthy set to be under center for Week 1 of the preseason, it will immediately give him a chance to see game action again. He has been on the sidelines since the injury against the Raiders last year, and this will be a big moment for him.

McCarthy threw 17 passes in his lone NFL game and completed 11 of them. He totaled 188 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. It was an encouraging sign for a player just starting their professional career.

J.J. McCarthy to Trishton Jackson for the 45 yard TD!

And @JJettas2 LOVES it!

📺: #LVvsMIN on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/QmEKsnabMz

— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024

It remains a mystery if JJ McCarthy would have ever unseated Darnold during the regular season, but that isn’t a concern now. Minnesota looks to unleash their new signal caller out of the gate, and then keep him unscathed until the games count.

Sam Howell, Brett Rypien, and Max Brosmer will do plenty of the heavy lifting during both the New England and Tennessee preseason games. You can expect McCarthy to be plenty active for the Minnesota Vikings joint practices with the New England Patriots before their preseason matchup.

Although McCarthy does not yet have professional stats on his Football Reference page, he left college with a Big Ten leading 72.3% completion rate. As a junior he threw for 2,991 yards and 22 touchdowns with just four interceptions.

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In Minnesota, McCarthy will have arguably the greatest collection of skill position players in the league. He is one of only two quarterbacks that get to throw to a 99 Club wide receiver as well. The games that count are just around the corner, and we get to see the Vikings new quarterback very soon.