Minnesota Vikings Trade One QB, Sign Another

The Minnesota Vikings have just two weeks remaining until the start of their 2025 regular season. Yet entering Sunday, they still had a lot of questions to answer in their quarterback room.

We all know JJ McCarthy — a redshirt rookie who’s never taken a meaningful snap in the NFL — will be the starter. Behind him was supposed to be Sam Howell, who has started 18 games and thrown for over 4000 yards during his 5-year NFL career.

Unfortunately, reality has not played out like the Vikings had hoped, when they traded for Sam Howell during the NFL Draft, in exchange for moving down 30 spots in the 5th round. Since his arrival at camp, reports out of Eagan have been mostly built on his inconsistency and inability to grasp Kevin O’Connell’s offense.

Howell’s early struggles even allowed for 2025 undrafted free agent Max Brosmer to insert himself into the MN Vikings backup quarterback competition, an idea that would have been hyperbolic at the start of camp.

Minnesota Vikings trade Sam Howell to Eagles

Which brings us to Sunday morning, when Sam’s extremely short stint in Minnesota came to an end. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has traded Howell, along with a 2026 6th rounder, to the Philadelphia Eagles. In return, the Vikings are receiving a 2026 5th and 2027 7th rounder.

Trade! The #Vikings are trading QB Sam Howell to the #Eagles, per me and @TomPelissero.

It’s a 5th in 2026 and 7th in 2027 to MIN, while PHI Howell and 6th in 2026. Minnesota, which recently hosted Carson Wentz on a visit, now has a QB opening. And Philly gets more QB depth. pic.twitter.com/LSLeYhMRPg

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 24, 2025

Related: Minnesota Vikings Insider Takes Ultimate QB2 Leap

For a very short period of time, trading away Sam Howell put Max Brosmer along on the Minnesota Vikings QB depth chart, behind JJ McCarthy. The former Gopher’s reign as Vikings QB2 didn’t last long, however.

As good as Brosmer has been this preseason, especially for a UDFA signing, he still has even less National Football League experience than our redshirt rookie starter. Thus, O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah started seriously perusing veteran quarterbacks on the open market, over the weekend.

Vikings replace Howell with Carson Wentz

That search began with a visit from 2016 No. 2 overall draft pick and former North Dakota State superstar, Carson Wentz. Nearly immediately after news of the Sam Howell trade broke, we found out that the Vikings liked what they saw from the 32-year-old Wentz on Saturday, at least enough to swap him in with a 24-year-old Howell.

The #Vikings are signing QB Carson Wentz, per me and @TomPelissero, after a successful workout over the weekend. A new backup for JJ McCarthy. pic.twitter.com/PHDgOmX6bs

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 24, 2025

Related: NFL Insiders Pour Gas on MN Vikings + Adam Thielen Rumors

Across his nine years in the NFL, Wentz has played in 98 games (94 starts). He’s thrown for 22,410 yards (62.7%), 153 touchdowns and 67 interceptions. After an incredibly hot start to his career in 2016 and 2017, Wentz fell off the face of the QB planet, following surgery to fix a torn ACL near the end of the 2017 season.

Since his injury, Wentz’ biggest NFL accomplishment was winning 2019 Comeback Player of the Year for the Eagles. Since, he’s had single-season stops at Indianapolis, Washington, LA (Rams) and Kansas City.

He was last a regular starter back in 2021, when he started all 17 games that season for the Colts. He has played in just 13 games (nine starts) since. Wentz and Sam Howell were teammates with the Commanders, back in 2022, where the two split starting duties. Now, Wentz is taking Howell’s job with the Minnesota Vikings.